China joins global effort to can spam
The Beijing government has joined the effort to fight spam by adopting the London Action Plan on International Spam Enforcement Collaboration, it emerged yesterday.
Following months of discussions, the Chinese government has finally agreed to sign up to the plan which aims to encourage greater co-operation between countries in analysing spam campaigns, investigating their origin, and encouraging ISPs around the world to take appropriate measures to defend innocent users.
The move was welcomed as a step towards stemming the steadily growing volume of junk mail. IT security firm Sophos reported in April that almost 10 per cent of spam originated from computers based in China. Much of this is being sent out through compromised computers, known as zombies, under the control of remote hackers without the knowledge of their owners.
"It is great news to hear that China will be joining international efforts to fight spam," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.
