UK to host anti-spam event

July summit will pool ideas on curbing spam's spiralling growth

IT Week, 23 May 2003

The first UK spam summit will take place on 1 July in London, MP Derek Wyatt announced this month. Meanwhile, free email provider Yahoo launched its anti-spam campaign on Thursday with a 'Dump the Junk' day.

The spam summit is due to be opened by e-commerce minister Stephen Timms, and representatives from the US and EU will speak at the event.

Wyatt, who is chairman of the All Party Internet Group (Apig), said it was important for international speakers to attend, as "only 10 per cent of spam comes from within the EU".

He added that an EU anti-spam law due in late October may be ineffectual unless spam is treated as a worldwide problem and global regulations are created to combat it.

Apig is currently gathering information about the extent of the spam problem from industry, legislative bodies and vendors of anti-spam tools.

This data will be discussed at the event, and will eventually be posted on a website that is currently in development. "[The site] is there so that people who cannot attend can both supply and view information," said Wyatt.

Following the summit, Apig intends to create a list of technical and policy recommendations, which is likely to be published on the site in October.

Timms also supported free email provider Yahoo Mail's anti-spam activities this month. The main Dump the Junk event took place on 22 May, aimed at educating users on how to deal with spam. It included the release of guidelines for dealing with spam in the workplace.

As part of its ongoing efforts, Yahoo will offer advice to businesses on the issues of personal email use within the workplace and best practices for avoiding spam.

One of Yahoo's suggestions is that companies should employ an 'email guardian' responsible for educating and reminding users about company policies.

Yahoo carried out a survey of European internet users as part of its campaign, and found that although 94 per cent of British users find spam emails annoying, many of them perpetuate the problem: 56 per cent had replied to spam emails, thereby confirming their addresses to spammers.