[photopress:spam.jpg,full,alignright]China is being listed in many news stories as the number two source in the world for spam. The United States still leads the field. (There is, however, considerable evidence that puts Russia ahead of both. That has still to be proved.)
It is not easy to stop spam, no matter where it originates.
Danny Levinson, a representative for anti-spam organization The Spamhaus Project in China, said: ‘It’s like influenza — we can build tools to avoid the scourge, but influenza will always remain.’
Spamhaus maintains a blacklist of junk e-mailers and works with law enforcement agencies to identify and hunt down spammers worldwide. For this to work effectively anti-spam legislation is needed. Worldwide this is not generally available.
The rise in other forms of spam beyond the e-mail inbox, such as instant messaging, voice over Internet Protocol, and SMS (short messaging service) spam, has resulted in loss of bandwidth capacity, loss of productivity and, ultimately, loss of money.
In a recent e-mail interview with ZDNet Asia, Levinson offered a progress report on China.
Three weeks ago, Spamhaus lifted a worldwide IP block on China’s Tom.com because the company was somehow wrapped up with a Chinese spammer. We are still focused on many other hotspots in China where systems administrators refuse to remove criminals from their systems. The good news is that I’m in direct contact with the Internet Society of China and China’s major telecom operators, and they are very receptive to change.
On Dec. 1, 2006, China’s Green Email Box initiative began with many of China’s top e-mail providers like Sohu, Sina, and Netease joining to help fight spam.
There are some great telecom administrators that quickly delete accounts or cancel client contracts if Spamhaus tells them that problems are developing. But there are still many administrators which hands are tied because the sales managers in their companies don’t want to lose these lucrative spam contracts.
With regards to the Chinese government and its affiliated agencies, we have continued to receive fantastic support and we are happy to work with them. They are proactive and they work quickly.
Source: Business Week