Malaysians want anti-spam legislation
13th October 2003 (The Star)
By CHAN LEE MENG

PETALING JAYA: The rapid increase in spam e-mail, or unsolicited commercial e-mail, in recent months has prompted calls for Government intervention to stem the tide.

Two-thirds of Malaysian organisations believe the spamming issue is serious and that the Government should come up with antispam legislation.

These were among the findings in the Niser Spamming Issues Online Survey which was conducted by the National ICT Security & Emergency Response (Niser), in collaboration with research firm ACNielsen Malaysia.

The survey was conducted in July 2003 among 102 organisations from the government, finance, retail, manufacturing, services and telecommunication sectors in Malaysia.

Among the problems caused by spam are wasted time, exceeded quotas in mailboxes, slowdown in accessing mail, and "psychological disturbances - stress," according to respondents.

"Clearly, unsolicited e-mail is a problem that must be addressed if users are to continue to enjoy the benefits of online computing," Niser director Lt Col Husin Jazri said recently.

However, he cautioned that legislation alone might not work against spam, as most spam originates from outside Malaysia.

"Legislation alone is not the answer, filtering technology and other actions should be considered," Husin added.

Some government policies that respondents would like to see include blacklisting spammers to allow filtering, charging spammers an "impact" fee, and creating a registry for those who do not want to receive spam.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission issued a discussion paper last August in which it listed out several proposals to combat the incidence of unsolicitied e-mail and SMS (short message service).

The proposals include formulating a definition of spam for regulatory purposes, imposing mandatory measures on service providers, and a multitier plan to resolve spam-related complaints and disputes.

Other findings from the Niser survey were less earth -shattering- some 95% of interviewees said that they have received spam, while 79% agree that spam costs significant time and money.

The survey results are available on Niser's website at www.niser.org.my.