Australia and South Korea signed a memorandum of understanding Monday to regulate and stem the tide of spam in their countries.
The Australian Communications Authority, the National Office for the Information Economy of Australia and the Korea Information Security Agency signed the agreement in Melbourne on Monday.
The agreement is expected to reduce the occurrence from the two countries of nuisance e-mails promoting financial scams, dubious products and pornography.
Federal Communications Minister Daryl Williams said: “The Australian government is committed to taking a strong stand against unwanted and offensive electronic mail.”
Williams said the memorandum is expected to be the first of many international agreements.
Williams praised Korea for strengthening its spam legislation recently, which has already produced significant results. He said since Korea introduced its new laws in 2001, the level of spam has dropped 20 per cent and is expected to continue dropping.
ACA chairman Bob Horton said the agencies will collaborate and exchange information and intelligence relating to spam.
Horton said the spam epidemic is clogging up the Internet and threatening the health of the information economy.
