Spam: ISPs must crush zombies, say trade groups

International trade associations are urging internet service providers (ISPs) to stamp out networks of computers used for sending junk email.

Members of the London Action Plan (LAP), which include the UK Office of Fair Trading, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and government agencies in 18 other countries, have launched Operation Spam Zombies - a campaign to make ISPs quarantine customer computers used to send spam.

Zombie networks are made up of thousands of virus-infected computers typically controlled by hackers for illegal activity, such as spamming. By routing emails through zombie computers, spammers are able to hide the origin of junk mail and make it more difficult for law enforcement to find them.

LAP will send letters to 3,000 ISPs around the world asking them to limit the amount of spam sent from a network and help customers to disinfect computers suspected of sending spam.

The FTC said some ISPs have already put similar measures in place but the campaign would force the rest to follow.

Don Blumenthal, internet lab co-ordinator at the Bureau of Consumer Protection for the FTC, said: "We're hoping that the added weight will be the incentive that's needed. We deliberately tried to avoid costing them a lot so some of the measures we suggest are [cheap] to implement. But the structure of some ISPs will get in the way of the recommendations."

The FTC said it would also like to identify spam networks and the providers that allow them to operate.

Steve Linford, director of anti-spam group SpamHaus, said: "We're all for this. [ISPs] will listen a bit more. Up until now it's just been us but now governments are noticing that ISPs are not cleaning up.

"The only problem is that all this costs money but there are some very responsible [ISPs] out there. We've already got a database we'll be handing over to them. But who knows what will happen after that?"