Australia, New Zealand join forces to battle spam

The Australian Communications and Media Authority and New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs will share information and enforcement efforts to combat spam and scams in the two countries.

The regulators announced today that they’ve signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to “further promote strategic engagement, facilitate information sharing and enhance compliance and enforcement outcomes.”

ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin said the regulator’s research last year showed 98 percent of Australian adults had received unsolicited communications on their phone.

“The recent ‘FluBot’ malware scam affected both Australians and New Zealanders, and information sharing with our New Zealand counterparts has aided the ACMA’s spam and scam work,” she said.

“This agreement will see our already-close relationship with our New Zealand counterparts enhanced through more strategic cooperation.”

Her counterpart, secretary for internal affairs Paul James, said the agreement expands on existing cooperation between Australia and New Zealand.

“Phishing campaigns and malware delivered through spam continues to be an increasing challenge globally – working collaboratively with other international jurisdictions is a key way to tackle this issue and protect New Zealanders,” he said.

“Enabling the agencies to share intelligence, techniques and tools for combatting spam, as well as sharing information on phishing and malware delivered through spam, demonstrates the close working relationship between the two regulators”

“This agreement will see our already-close relationship with our New Zealand counterparts enhanced through more strategic cooperation.”

The ACMA already has similar arrangements with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission and the USA’s Federal Communications Commission.

The agencies are also core members of the Unsolicited Communications Enforcement Network, a global network of regulators and key stakeholders tackling unsolicited communications.

The MoU is available at the ACMA website (pdf).