Security news
Security news10 December 2003
New UK spam legislation comes into force: worthwhile or worthless? Sophos comments
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| Sophos believes the UK legislation is unlikely to help businesses suffering from spam |
Tomorrow - December 11 - sees the introduction of new UK regulations to tackle the burgeoning problem of unsolicited commercial email or spam which the UN* claims to be costing as much as $20.5bn per year. Although Sophos, a world leader in protecting businesses from viruses and spam, welcomes any move to reduce this plague, it believes this legislation will be largely ineffective, particularly for business users of email.
The UK legislation - based on EU guidelines - will mean that unsolicited commercial email can only be sent to individual subscribers who have granted prior permission (called 'opt in'). However, there are loopholes which will enable spammers to keep targeting business users, clogging up their email inboxes unless they have effective anti-spam software in place.
UK legislation is also powerless to tackle spam originating in other countries. With the vast majority of the world's spam thought to come from the US, and with its anti-spam laws (known as 'Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act' or CAN-SPAM), taking a relatively soft stance on spammers (by putting the onus on the recipient to opt out), Sophos believes that the new UK legislation will not have any noticeable impact on the volume of spam.
"The UK is taking a tougher stand against spam than some countries, but this is toothless without buy-in from the rest of the world," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "The vast majority of spam originates from the USA, where CAN-SPAM laws mean - you *can* spam. Spam is a global issue and needs a global solution. Many users will be experiencing more junk email than ever this Christmas, and a spam-filled 2004."
In addition, Sophos's statistics reveal that a third of spam is sent from 'hijacked' innocent computers, making tracing and prosecuting offenders rather difficult. Technology also allows spammers to disguise their location so introducing laws on a country-by-country basis will have little impact.
Sophos recommends companies protect themselves with a consolidated solution which can defend businesses from the threats of both spam and viruses.
* United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) annual study, quoting data from private research firms.
