Internet service providers have agreed information
sharing principles in a bid to crack down on spam, which now makes
up an estimated 60% of the 84 billion e-mails sent each
day.
The 200 members of the London Internet Exchange (LINX) agreed
the principles, which are based on a best practice paper on
spam-busting techniques drawn up by Cambridge University internet
security expert Richard Clayton.
The document outlines how traffic data analysis can be used to
identify the source of spam, without the need to examine the
content of e-mails – a method that helps to protect e-mail users’
privacy. It also sets out what measures ISPs should consider to
tackle spam and viruses.
Traffic data analysis techniques are new to the fight against
spam, but breakdowns of radio and telephone traffic have long been
used by police and intelligence agencies to track down criminals or
enemy forces.
Clayton said, “Traffic data logs can be analysed to seek out
patterns indicative of the sending of spam or copies of e-mail
viruses. The patterns of usage between legitimate senders of e-mail
and those sending spam and viruses are very different and
importantly, analysis can be carried out on just the traffic data
without any of the content analysis results at all.”
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