Deputy Minister of Information and Communications: Difficult to handle because there are no criteria for spam messages

Speaking at the State Management Conference of the first quarter of 2015 of the Ministry of Information and Communications held this morning, April 3, 2015, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Le Nam Thang emphasized the current situation of coordination to prevent spam messages.

The Deputy Minister said that last week, the Information Security Department under the Ministry of Information and Communications met with "network operators" to find solutions to prevent spam messages. Reviewing, it was found that after the issuance of Directive No. 82 of the Minister of Information and Communications on preventing spam messages, scam messages and strengthening information management on the network, telecommunications enterprises have actively "taken part" in preventing spam messages.

"However, the most lacking problem at present is the lack of official guidance documents from the Ministry. Units of the Ministry such as the Department of Telecommunications, the Department of Information Security, and the Vietnam Computer Incident Response Center - VNCERT, currently often issue their own documents, with no unified direction. The Ministry of Information and Communications does not have criteria for determining spam messages by quantity, so it cannot direct businesses to handle spam messages. Currently, telecommunications businesses often block spam messages according to criteria they set themselves," Deputy Minister Le Nam Thang emphasized.

Currently, it is difficult for management agencies and "network operators" to determine which messages users do not want to receive. Illustration photo: Internet.

In fact, people often think that spam messages come in two types: One is messages containing viruses, scam messages; Two is advertising messages that users do not want to receive (currently, management agencies and telecommunications businesses cannot determine which messages are the type of messages users do not want to receive).

"Network operators" often apply measures to block spam messages based on message frequency, wording... There have been cases of mistakenly blocking regular messages (not spam messages)

Deputy Minister Le Nam Thang once again emphasized: "It is necessary to soon determine quantitative criteria for spam messages to have a basis for handling, avoiding affecting the interests of consumers as well as telecommunications businesses."

"The Ministry of Information and Communications has assigned the Department of Information Security to soon determine the criteria for what constitutes spam. The Department of Telecommunications is responsible for finding solutions to prevent spam. The inspection force is responsible for checking and handling violations related to spam messages," said Deputy Minister Le Nam Thang.

According to the Deputy Minister, Directive 82 clearly assigned responsibilities to relevant agencies, units, and enterprises. Agencies, units, and enterprises need to properly implement the assignment in Directive 82. Accordingly, the Telecommunications Department is responsible for coordinating the overall activities to prevent spam messages.

Regarding the activities of preventing spam messages, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hai, Director of the Department of Information Security, said that telecommunications enterprises are still concerned about some shortcomings in the activities of preventing spam messages. Typically, there is still no database of identity cards deployed by the Ministry of Public Security to serve the management of prepaid subscribers. However, the Department of Information Security requires mobile telecommunications enterprises to first check information with agents. Even 1 spam message will be blocked. In the coming time, the Department of Information Security will continue to coordinate with mobile telecommunications enterprises to prevent spam messages more effectively.

According to Infonet