ACA - MR1805

Media release No. 18 - 27 April 2005

Contact: paul.slocum@acma.gov.au

Australian regulator leads Asia-Pacific push against spam

The Australian Communications Authority (ACA) has joined with the Korean Information Security Agency (KISA) to bring together 12 Asia-Pacific communications and Internet agencies in the fight against spam.

The ACA today signed the Seoul-Melbourne Anti-Spam Agreement, a multilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cooperation in countering spam with agencies from China, Hong Kong, Japan (2), Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines (2), Thailand and Taiwan.

ACA Acting Chairman Dr Bob Horton said the agency-to-agency agreement would assist with cooperation at an operational level.

“The MoU is focused on sharing knowledge, information and intelligence about known sources of spam, network vulnerabilities, methods of spam propagation, and technical, educational and policy solutions to the spam problem,” Dr Horton said.

“It will also focus on putting anti-spam solutions and strategies into action.”

The new MoU is based on the existing successful agreement signed in late 2003 between the ACA, the National Office for the Information Economy of Australia and the Korea Information Security Agency (KISA) to combat the spam problem.

“Over the past year, this agreement has provided a great platform for practical working-level cooperation and information exchange,” Dr Horton said.  ”The relationship between the two agencies has been both positive and mutually beneficial, and we look forward to increasing its effectiveness through this new extended partnership.’

“So far, Australia and Korea have swapped information on technological solutions to spam, education programs for business and consumers, trends and solutions for mobile phone spam and the shutting down of compromised systems that are hosting phishing scams or offensive content."

“These new cooperative relationships will help us to make the business of spamming less profitable, which will in turn benefit Internet users," Dr Horton said. "We can now build on the success of the Australia-Korea MoU and expand our efforts through the combined skills, contacts and influence of agencies across the Asia-Pacific region.

“The ACA is looking forward to working with these agencies to combat spam and to progressively extend the agreement to additional agencies as circumstances and readiness develop.  The ACA is pleased to provide the first Secretary for the agreement," Dr Horton concluded.

The ACA and KISA will work together to coordinate cooperation between the MoU members.

The Australian Communications Authority is a government regulator of telecommunications and radiocommunications