Two Australian government agencies have joined an international campaign aimed at persuading companies to close open relays and proxies, in a bid to reduce the amount of spam.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) are taking part in an international campaign to educate companies about the need to close open relays and proxies.
The campaign is headed by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), with 36 agencies from 26 countries taking part. Dubbed "Operation secure your server", the aim is to persuade organisations to close open relays and proxies to reduce the amount of unsolicited commercial email.
"As part of the initiative, the participating agencies have identified tens of thousands of owners or operators of potentially open relay or open proxy servers around the world and are sending letters urging them to protect themselves from becoming unwitting sources of spam," according to an ACCC statement.
John Haydon, executive manager for the consumer and universal service obligation group at the ACA, told iTnews that the international dimension in combating spam was very important. "Especially for Australia, because the fraction of spam that is locally originated and terminated is very small," Haydon said. "Most of the spam Australians are suffering under originates overseas."