HKISPA spam activities 05

HKISPA spam activities 05

Andy [email protected]

Year in Summary

• HKISPA survey has become the benchmark– 1st Sin Chung Kai’s - to legislate or not?– 2nd Damn the spam– 3rd Govt consultation

• Economic impact analysis heavily quoted in media and by Government.

Anti SPAM activities cont• HKISPA continues as Founder member of

HK Anti Spam Coalition• Damn the spam event, Chambers HKISPA,

OFTA, Police, vendors– York presented 2nd survey results– Andy technical approaches to anti spam

• Govt UEM consultation submission• HKISPA influence on govt response• Resulted in STEPS, +ve outcome• Presented to Govt IT groups

We support STEPS

• HKISPA supports the HK Government STEPS program, particularly in the areas of;

• Legislation’s important role• Partnering & tangibly supporting a

coordinated anti spam effort in HK• Recognising importance of

Technology

HKISPA suggestions for how govt should combat spam

• Execute STEPS, fully supported by HKISPA• Launch an Email Abuse Centre which includes…• a common shared technology platform for ISPs

eg blacklist• education and best practice advice for public• access to best of breed resources for people and

business to use to combat spam and other unwanted email

• Complaint handling for public• Govt to “outsource” the centre to experts• HKISPA willing to take the project on

Next “STEPS” for us

• Develop proposal to govt to run a common blacklist / email abuse centre – we aim to run this!

• Pursure alliances with other organisations on spam, IIA, FCC, ISC

• Update our spam COP• Participate in next consultation

The end

• Following slides cover survey results and other info from our presentation to govt.

Spam is the “Silent Killer” of email• March, spam 69%, virus 7% of email• 75% of spam is sent from botnets• Approx 20% now hidden behind ISP MTAs• Trojans vs Supercomputers?• Broadband growing 80% year• 30,000 new zombies appearing each day• Dictionary attacks for business domains• Globally China is now highest spam levels

at 80%, HK 57%

How much spam per country?Geographical Breakdown of Spam Intercepted

7.2%

7.7%

12.8

%

13.8

%

14.4

%

24.9

%

29.0

%

33.3

%35.9

%

39.2

%40

.1%

40.9

%

41.2

%

43.4

%45

.5%

51.6

%

51.9

%

53.1

%57.2

%

58.5

%

59.1

%59

.2%

60.6

%

61.0

%

61.6

%

62.1

%65.7

%68

.4%

71.7

%74.1

%

74.7

%

75.1

%

75.3

%75

.7%

76.6

%

76.7

%

76.8

%

77.3

%

79.1

%80

.6%

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

90.0%

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Ken

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Kin

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Bel

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Origin of spam into HK

Origin of spam attacks against Hong Kong email servers for March 2005

Other, 6.9%

Canada, 1.4%

Great Britain, 1.6%

Taiwan, 1.9%

US, 22.0%

S. Korea, 29.4%

China, 17.9%

Uruguay, 4.3%

Rest of World, 12.9%

Netherlands, 2.0%

Spain, 2.1%

Japan, 2.2%

France, 3.8%

Is SPAM an issue in HK?HKISPA’s survey of ISPs

HKISPA Survey

• 3 rounds of surveys over past ~12 mths• Members & non Members – 11 ISPs• Covering majority of HK email users• Covered details of spam received &

measures taken by ISPs• ISP Recommendations to combat spam• Potential Economic impact

HKISPA’s survey of ISP’s

• 11 respondents – broad representation• Majority of Internet users in HK >90%• Focus on impact of SPAM and its

origin

Background• Rising number of complaints to OFTA,

Consumer Council, Media and ISPs• Increasing commercial impact to online

business (service providers, legitimate online marketers, vendors)

• Overseas trend towards legislationLead to;• OFTA & HKISPA meetings• Forming of HK Anti Spam coalition • Forming of ASTF under HKISPA • HKISPA tasked with trying to quantify the issue

in Hong Kong

Survey objectives

• Size the problem in HK• Identify the key characteristics• Understand what is being done today

and what ISPs would be considered most effective means to combat spam

Is Spam a problem in HK?

• Is SPAM is a major issue: YES• Spam is in the top 3 issues for

all ISPs but 1

• Lots of spam complaints: • Half the ISPs receive > 500/mth• Majority relate to receiving spam >40%• Less are for unable to send email >30%

Spam in HK

Weighting the responses we can say that HK spam is at least

60%of email handled by HK ISPs. This is in line with International trends.

Spam originating in HK

Weighting the responses we can conclude that HK originating spam is in the region of

5%of the total spam.

Asian Spam ex HK

Difficult to quantify, however it is clear that more Asian spam coming from outside HK than inside.

20-40%Mainland is the dominant source.Taiwan next most prevalent

How often are HK ISPs blocked

# ISPs Freq Size1 weekly L2 monthly M5 yearly LMS2 never M

Are ISPs addressing the issueAll but one have implemented antispam measures. These include….

• Self built blacklists 10/11 ISPs• Commercial blacklists 6/11• Rate limiting 6/11• Content analysis 6/11• Info sharing 1/11• Other analysis 5/11• Commercial product 1/11

No consensus on the most effective

Suggestions to address SPAM

• ALL ISPs are willing and think it’s a good idea to work together.

• ALL ISPs think a common blacklist is the most powerful means.

More suggestions from ISPs

• Sharing info.• A charging mechanism to send and

deliver bulk email.• Legislation.

ISPs view on Legislation

• Uncertain will address the core issue by materially reducing the amount of spam.

• General feeling it would be a positive step.

Help 8Wont help 2Unsure 1

Economic impact of SPAM

• International studies put the impact between USD10-20 Billion pa

• Losses at USD874 per employee pa*• 6.5minutes “absenteeism” per/emp/day

*source IDG

Potential losses to HK economy

• To the HK economy ~HKD9.7B*

• Due to “absenteeism” HKD6.8B* $22M/day

$13/emp/day

*assuming half HK’s 3.5M workforce uses email with unemployment at 7.2% and the same cost structure to International studies. Average salary of email users assumed as 22K.mth.

Summary of survey findings

• Spam IS a major problem for ISPs and their customers.

• A large proportion (>60%) of email in HK is spam.

• Though most of the spam is not from HK, a significant amount (5%) is.

• Even more is Asian language (20-40%).

Summary of survey findings• All ISPs have procedures in place, but

not highly effective• Varying views on most effective• All think it’s a good idea to work

together – common blacklist & info sharing info most popular idea

• Most believe legislation would help

Thank you

[email protected]