EU Telecoms Council Promotes Safer Internet Use
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Safer Internet Plus, the four-year program proposed by the European Commission in March, will have a budget of $60 million to combat illegal and harmful Web content.
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(InfoWorld) - The European Commission has warned its member states to beef up their efforts to cut spam, spyware and malicious software, after research showed that up to 85 percent of all e-mail received in the European Union is unsolicited.The findings come four years after the EU adopted anti-spam legislation in the form of the e-privacy directive. "It is time to turn the repeated political concern about spam into concrete actions to fight spam," Viviane Reding, the commissioner for Information Society and Media, said in a statement on Monday.If there is no improvement by this time next year, Reding will consider introducing new legislative measures to fight the scourge, she said.She pointed to the Netherlands as an example of how the current legal regime can be used to cut spam. Hollandâs spam-busting unit, known by the initials OPTA, has just five full-time staff and â¬570,000 (US$747,000) worth of equipment, and has succeeded in cutting spam by 85 percent. âI'd like to see other countries achieving similar results through more efficient enforcement,â Reding said.Finland was also singled out for praise. A filtering system there has cut the amount of spam to 30 percent of all e-mail, from 80 percent two years ago, the Commission said.âWe encourage other countries in the Union to develop similar filtering means,â said Martin Selmayr, Redingâs spokesman, at a press conference Monday.The Commission is urging other countries âto lay down clear lines of responsibility to use the tools available under E.U. law effectively." Better cooperation with enforcement authorities from other countries, including countries outside the Union, is essential to defeat the spammers, the Commission said.The U.S. remains the single biggest source of spam, accounting for 22 percent of all spam received in the EU, the Commission said. China is the second largest source, accounting for 13 percent. France and South Korea rank joint third at 6 percent.The U.S. and the EU have agreed to tackle spam through joint enforcement initiatives, the Commission said.Last year, Ferris Research estimated spam to cost â¬39 billion worldwide, while fellow researcher Computer Economics calculated malicious software to cost â¬11 billion worldwide.The Commission's latest communication on spam is available here in several languages.
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President Bush signed a directive this month that expands the intelligence community's role in monitoring Internet traffic to protect against a rising number of attacks on federal agencies' computer systems.
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At a hearing Monday, a top European regulator said that Internet Protocol addresses should be treated as personal information, something Google and other sites have resisted.
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(InfoWorld) - The web of IT security specifications and standards organizations in Europe may become a bit clearer with a new portal that provides a one-stop source for standards information. The portal, called the ICT Security Standards Roadmap, lies within the Web site of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the telecommunications agency of the United Nations. It is the first effort to create a repository for network and information security standardization efforts in Europe for security vendors, service providers, developers, and researchers, according to the ITU. The portal -- parts of which are still under construction -- lists standards organizations throughout Europe and specifications and will eventually detail ongoing projects between different standards bodies. Contributors to the portal include the European Network and Information Security Agency and the Network and Information Security Steering Group, part of the ICT Standards Board. Â
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The European Commission welcomed on   Monday U.S. government moves to make the company that manages   Internet domain names independent by 2009, but said it would   monitor the process carefully.
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European Commission calls upon member states to tackle "digital illiteracy" and shortfall in qualified tech staff.
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The Federal Trade Commission yesterday said policymakers should be cautious about regulating high-speed Internet traffic.
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A children's advocacy group launched the first-of-its-kind free online safety resource to help parents and educators protect youths from being exploited on the Internet.
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Skinheads, scantily-clad women, a  machinegun-toting robot and "Klaus," an impressionable  youngster, starred in a European Commission drive on Tuesday to  make the Internet and mobile phones safer for children.
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I didn't get a 'harrumph' out of that guy ... EU ambassadors have agreed on a draft statement regarding "cooperation to combat terrorist use of the internet". Justice and Interior ministers are expected to endorse the document in June.â¦
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More than half of Europe's Internet  surfers now have a high-speed broadband connection at home,  which has helped to push the number of Web users in Europe  through the 100 million mark, a survey found on Thursday.
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Cheap telephone calls made using broadband internet connections came a step closer yesterday when Ofcom, the industry regulator, laid out its plans to help the take-up of the new technology.
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More than 122m Europeans aged 15 and above use the internet each day, says a report.
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The European Commission's telecommunications department on Thursday gave the go-ahead to U.K. telecom regulator Ofcom to deregulate the wholesale broadband market in more than half the U.K.
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Almost 55 million people in Europe have broadband, with the web eating into TV viewing habits, studies show.
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A shake-up of European Union telecoms regulation risks undermining national watchdogs and creating an unnecessary layer of bureau&shy;cracy in Brussels, says the UK telecoms regulator.