Greens call for laws on 'spam' after virus attack

The Green Party has called on the Government to introduce legislation to ban email 'spam' after computer systems across the State…

The Green Party has called on the Government to introduce legislation to ban email 'spam' after computer systems across the State were hit by a new virus.

The SOBIG F virus is believed to have been created by so-called spammers in a bid to find new email addresses to sell products in mass-marketing campaigns.

Millions of computer users have already been hit by SOBIG F, a more virulent strain of a virus already in circulation.

Green Party TD Mr Ciaran Cuffe claimed the Leinster House computer system "ground to a halt" today, slowing down dramatically due to what he attributed to 'spam' messages connected to SOBIG F.

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"I had 40 messages with a particular subject line," he said. However, an Oireachtas spokeswoman said there had been no problem with the Leinster House computer system.

Mr Cuffe called on the Government to introduce legislation that will prohibit the sending of unsolicited junk e-mail unless it is clearly marked as an unsolicited commercial advertisement and consumers are given an 'opt-out' for future mails.

"Businesses are grinding to a halt due to the amount of spam being distributed. Time is money, and the failure to tackle this issue means that the Irish economy suffers," the TD said.

Mr Cuffe said the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Ahern was "dragging his feet" on the issue and simply waiting for the European Union to take action.

"If Ireland is serious about Information Technology we should take the lead and outlaw spamming now."

Mr Cuffe acknowledged the difficulty in preventing spam, but said it was possible "to an extent".

"We have even started getting spam from Irish firms," he said.

Some Internet Service Providers in the US estimate that as much as 50 to 60 per cent of incoming email traffic to clients' addresses is spam. Recently, three of the main providers of email services, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL decided to work together in an unprecedented move to begin tackling such unwanted commercial messages.

In June, the software giant Microsoft filed lawsuits against 15 groups of individuals and companies that it claims, between them, sent its clients more than two billion spam messages.

Microsoft's Hotmail service, which has 140 million users, has estimated that more than 80 per cent of the 2.5 billion email messages sent each day to its users are spam.