Africa, on the Road to Athens, Cairo september 2006 SPAM in Africa: Problems and Solutions? Adel GAALOUL, Président Directeur Général Agence Tunisienne d’Internet

Summary 1. What is SPAM ? 2. The Spam’s problem 3. The Tunis Agenda and Spam 4. An Approach to Fight Spam

3 1. What is SPAM? - Definition: The sending, often massive, of electronic messages not solicited - Communications : , Mobile SMS, MMS, Video… - Carried content: Commercial - Offensive and harmful content - Security (Mail Bombing, Viruses, Phishing, Scams, ID Theft…) - A new ecosystem: Low cost entry, high profit, anonymity, not well organised

4 2. The SPAM problem The spam is reaching worrying proportions of traffic

5 2. The Spam problem SPAM source SPAM source (2004)

6 2. The Spam problem Less protected and more vulnerable Narrow bandwidth available Productivity reduction Loss of messages (use of inefficient filtering tools) Reception of fraudulent contents and security risks E-marketing and e-news companies are blacklisted Innovation is killed Impact: African costumer suffers more from Spam

7 2. The Spam problem Operation cost inflation: - filtering software - bandwidth waste - more server / storage capacity Security problems: servers attacks, organization Adequate resources: Need more specialized technicians Quality of service degradation: Blacklisting of gateways Unsatisfied costumers Challenges for African ISPs

8 3. The Tunis Agenda and Spam We call upon all stakeholders, to adopt a multi- pronged approach to counter spam that includes, inter alia, consumer and business education; appropriate legislation, law enforcement authorities and tools; the continued development of technical and self regulatory measures; best practices; and international cooperation. Paragraph 41, Tunis Agenda

9 Anti-SPAM Action Plan Global cooperation Awareness capacity building Trust / confidence Regulation Technical actions 4. Fighting spam, a multi-dimensional approach D CAB

10 A. Regulation system ITU study on anti-spam law covering 58 countries (2005)

11 A. An efficient regulation framework - Anti-spam law Coordination, regulation and arbitration authority Implementation mechanisms Simple mechanisms for complaint deposit and reporting, Online reporting forms Enacting a law that balance between regulation and promotion of electronic messaging, and fights spam - Complementary actions

12 A. An efficient regulation framework - Explicit agreement (opt-in): Messages cannot be sent without the preliminary agreement of the recipients (Australia, Belgium, Germany, UK, Italy, France, Switzerland…) - Assumption of acceptance until refusal (opt-out): Sending of messages to people who do not oppose to it (Switzerland, Japan, Korea, USA…) Two approaches of the legislation

13 A. An efficient regulation framework Explicit un-subscription must be included Prohibition to falsify or hides origin and heading informations Use of special labels to add in the subject for commercial, adult messages (for example ADV…) Define legitimate mass mailing conditions (newsletter…) Content of legislation  Messages constraints:

14 A. An efficient regulation framework Sending, ordering, authorizing or gaining through spam activity Sale, purchase and use of software for electronic addresses collection Dictionary attacks and personal data automatically generated lists Illegal access in order to send messages Sending spam containing malware, misleading or fraudulent contents, scams, fishing, and other frauds… Content of legislation  Prohibition and sanction :

15 B. Technical actions Optimise messaging gateways configuration Checking of compliance with SMTP protocol RFC 2821… Restrictions on address, host name and IP address Protection against -bombing and limitation of s flow ( per unit of time, recipients per unit of time, errors…) Protection against dictionary attacks Protection of customers infrastructure against attacks and relaying Infrastructure optimisation and Security

16 B. Technical actions Implementation of International Blacklists (RBL, RHBL) and Setting up National Blacklists Setting up white lists for mass mailing users and an authentication SMTP gateways Installation of anti-spam and antivirus filters at ISP level Distribution of anti-spam tools for end user (possibly open source) Setting up tools and methods for spam reporting and collaboration Staff for managing spam incidents Spam management system

17 C. Awareness and capacity building Inform and develop understanding of spam, fishing problem, Open relays … Integrating security modules in children education curriculum for positive use of ICT Capacity building programs (specialist, business, teacher education …) Disseminate information via Website: Anti-spam toolkits, training materials… Reinforce awareness and capacity building

18 D. Global cooperation Define charters: messaging services use, commercial mailing services and direct marketers Set up cooperation between ISPs and other stakeholders: anti- spam platforms, experience sharing (blacklisting, white listing, tools…), best practices… Develop join capacity building program Set up reaction and emergency plans Procedure of data and statistic collection Establishing Anti-spam Taskforce:

19 D. Global cooperation Many existing frameworks: APEC Anti-Spam Strategy, London Action Plan OECD tool kit, ITU activities Coordinate international cooperation nationally Need of anti-spam African cooperation (Anti-spam Network) Reinforce International cooperation

20 THANK YOU MERCI شكرا