ITU Spam-Fighting Standards Get Preliminary Approval
GENEVA -- An ITU working group on telecom security gave preliminary approval to three spam-fighting standards. The action at a meeting Dec. 10 to 14 begins a “traditional” review by ITU member countries of specs with regulatory implications, said Herb Bertine of Alcatel-Lucent, speaking as chairman of ITU-T study group 17. If governments allow, the study group likely will approve them at a meeting April 7 to 18.
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The standard lays outs concepts, characteristics, effects and technical issues of e-mail spam, the draft text said. It explained technical solutions and efforts by standards development bodies and spam foes. The ITU recommendation would offer a guideline and information to users developing technical solutions on countering spam. The work cited IETF standards.
The draft text on technical recommendations for fighting spam describe the problem’s general characteristics. As it advances, the ITU recommendation will make technical recommendations in general, not for specific types of spam, the draft text said. A model covers gear, network, service, filtering and feedback. The paper gives technical requirements on fighting spam that a government considers inappropriate under national laws and policies, the draft text said. The U.S. emphasized that follow-through is voluntary.
The text describes an anti-spam system along these lines, including key modules. The aim of the framework is to set up a way to share information on spam among e-mail servers, the draft text said. Systems using the framework would improve efficiency through interconnection, it said.
Other spam specs set for review at the April meeting include an overview and technical framework for countering IP multimedia spam, and an Interactive Countering Spam Gateway System. The gateway system enables spam notification from receiver’s gateway to sender’s gateway, keeping spam traffic from going across the network.