ACMA meets with international anti-spam partners

ACMA has kicked off a week-long series of anti-spam meetings and workshops with regulators, law enforcement and experts from more than 13 other countries.

Representatives from Microsoft, Sophos, the US Federal Trade Commission, European Commission, and Taiwanese National Communications Commission would meet in Melbourne for the sixth Joint London Action Plan workshop until Thursday.

The workshop would be preceded by an annual meeting of the Seoul-Melbourne Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in Countering Spam on Monday.

On Friday, ACMA would also meet with Taiwanese delegates for the Australia-Taiwan Anti-Spam Bilateral Meeting.

Security vendors Symantec and MessageLabs last year reported that nine of ten emails were either spam or scam messages.

According to ACMA chairman Chris Chapman, an international anti-spam approach was critical to combating junk mail.

"Spam is a global problem, so it's vital for the international spam regulatory community to meet and share information," Chapman said.

He highlighted the December 2009 sentencing of Queensland-based botnet operator Lance Thomas Atkinson as an example of an ACMA investigation that also involved international partners.

Atkinson was fined $210,000 by the Federal Court in Brisbane, $100,000 by the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs and $16 million by the US Federal Trade Commission for his "AffKing" spam operation.

"International collaborations are critical to outcomes such as those achieved in the investigation of Mr Atkinson," Chapman said.

"This week the ACMA will form new, and strengthen existing, relationships with our international partners, to continue its work as a world leader in anti-spam regulation."