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COMMUNICATIONS: Junk E-Mail Is ‘Epidemic’

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Jul 6 2004 (IPS) - All hopes invested in the ”information society” could be dashed if current – and ever-increasing – abuses of the Internet and electronic mail persist, say experts meeting here this week.

Junk e-mails, popularly known as ”spam”, are unsolicited electronic messages sent over the Internet and are racking up global costs of 25 billion dollars a year, according to estimates by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

If appropriate action is not taken, these messages, many of which contain fraudulent information, could soon represent as much as 86 percent of electronic messaging traffic, predicted Robert Horton, head of the Australian Communications Authority.

”It is the modern day epidemic,” he said.

Many people have become so frustrated that they are considering abandoning the use of Internet in their businesses and in their private lives, and of quitting their mobile telephones, which has become another target of spam distributors, according to Horton.

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), in its first phase in Geneva in December 2003, identified spam as a potentially serious threat to Internet use and to e-mail in particular.

In the preparations for the second and final phase of WSIS – to take place in Tunisia in 2005 – the focus is on reducing the digital divide that separates rich and poor countries.

One of the decisions approved by the WSIS was to recommend national and international actions to create trust in the security of information and communication technologies.

With that in mind, representatives from 60 countries are meeting in Geneva this week – mostly officials from telecomms regulatory agencies and industry executives, although some independent non-governmental organisations have also sent delegates.

Organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the meet is for the first time ”calling together the regulators of the world to develop a consensus approach to a solution of cooperation,” said Horton.

Hundreds of millions of junk e-mails are sent each day and usually consist of advertising, are sent repeatedly, and cause problems for communications systems, financial losses and productivity losses for companies and for individual users alike.

The Australian expert, chairman of the meeting on spam, called on participants to ”familiarise ourselves with the full knowledge of what spam capabilities and anti-spamming technologies are available to us.”

The issues on the table include legislation needed to combat the problem, public education, and ”industry actions by Internet service providers, mobile phone carriers and other electronic messages service providers and marketers,” said Horton.

All of these actors need to be engaged in working towards ”securing the fundamentals of the industry which is part of our future,” he added.

The figures on just how much junk e-mail is being sent vary. Some experts say it represents 70 percent of e-mail traffic. In Europe the proportion is thought to be 54 percent.

Horton said losses caused by spam in Europe are estimated at 10 billion dollars a year.

The top 10 countries emitting spam are, in descending order: United States, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, Canada, Argentina, Russia, Italy and Hong Kong.

Software companies, including the giant Microsoft, which Horton mentioned repeatedly, have said they hope to have the problem under control within the next two years.

”And hopefully eliminate it, much as eliminating a disease which has spread over the world and threatens its survival,” Horton told journalists Tuesday. ”It’s an epidemic on our hands which we need to learn control.”

The top priority of the anti-spam campaign is the eradication of pornographic messages, which could be reaching children, he said.

”The aggravating and socially appalling material which is put on the Internet cause great concern to regulators of content throughout the world,” said the official.

The message of the chairman of the spam meeting can be summarised in that the telecomms industry has the technical means and the capacity to generate solutions to the junk e-mail problem, ”and the regulators of the world have the formal powers to make that happen.”

Of the 189 ITU member states, just 30 to 35 have passed laws to fight spam. But Horton is philosophical about that figure: ”It’s a good start.”