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| Mansfield sent over 50 million spam emails. |
Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global
network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have welcomed
news that the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)
has successfully prosecuted its first spammer under Australia's
Spam Act laws.
The Perth, Western Australia-based spammer, Wayne Mansfield, and
his company Clarity1, were found to have illegally sent more than
56 million spam messages in the 12 months since the Act was
introduced in April 2004. In April 2005, Sophos reported how authorities
in Australia raided a suspected spam factory in Perth, during which
the contents of computer hard disks and other material were
seized.
Justice Nicholson of the Federal Court in Perth, rejected
defense pleas that recipients had consented to receive the spam
emails. The federal court will determine what penalty Mansfield
should receive at a later date.
"The ACMA is to be congratulated for developing and presenting a
thorough case against Wayne Mansfield, and for putting an end to
the huge amounts of spam originating from his company's servers,"
said Rob
Forsyth, Regional Managing Director for Sophos Asia Pacific.
"Australia's Spam Act is a first step towards eradicating locally
produced spam. However, it is only through the combination of
international cooperation, local legislation, law enforcement,
technology enforcement and user education that will help put a stop
to spam."
ACMA and Australia's Internet Industry Association recently
registered the world's first legislatively-backed industry code of
practice
to counter spam.
Sophos recommends that companies protect their email gateways
with a consolidated solution to defend
against viruses, spyware and spam. Businesses should also secure
their desktop and servers with automatically updated
protection.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.