Assessment of the Status of SPAM in the Kingdom
SPAM
represents a major annoyance and threat to ICT applications users and is
spreading into all means of communications. As many countries, regional
and international organizations, bodies, and working groups have taken
steps to deal with the issue of SPAM, Saudi Arabia has taken the
initiative to develop an anti-SPAM framework. Towards this end, and
besides considering other countries’ experiences and international
bodies’ recommendations, it was necessary to assess the current state of
SPAM in the Kingdom.
The purpose of this report is to describe the findings on the magnitude
of SPAM in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including its use for Phishing
and spreading viruses, awareness of SPAM, the current anti-SPAM measures
used, and its impact on the various stakeholders in Saudi Arabia. SPAM
measurement is key to evaluate the evolution of SPAM and the
effectiveness of the anti-SPAM framework in the Kingdom.
To achieve this purpose, all pertinent stakeholders were identified and
a framework for the collection of SPAM-related statistics was developed.
This framework covers email, SMS and fax and is focused on three
aspects. First, the definition of SPAM and related SPAM indicators where
“SPAM rate” is defined as the percentage of SPAM compared to the total
number of received messages. Second, the identification of sources for
SPAM related statistics where, in addition to interviews, filters and
anti-SPAM tools used by organizations and ISPs were the main source for
determining email SPAM while gateways and servers owned by Mobile
Service Providers were used to calculate SMS SPAM. Third, the collection
of SPAM statistics achieved by inspecting published reliable data and by
conducting survey, interviews and discussions with relevant personnel
including CITC, KACST, MOC, MOI, SAMA , companies, financial services
institutions, Internet Service Providers, Data Service Providers, bulk
SMS licensees, mobile operators, solution providers and others.
Although the SPAM rate differs depending on where the SPAM is being measured, SPAM appears to be a serious problem in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. According to the data gathered by ISPs, the average eMail SPAM rate in the Kingdom was 54%. Other sources such as Anti SPAM Product vendors suggest that the SPAM rate ranges between 40% and 60%. For instance, Symantec reports SPAM rate to be 59% for the year 2006. Message Labs report the SPAM for the year 2006 to be 48% and for the year 2007 (till July) to be 43%. On the other hand, Fax SPAM was not considered to be a major source of SPAM with less than 6% SPAM rate. The Direct Marketing Messages constitute the major type of SPAM received in the Kingdom reflecting the most majority of commercial SPAM in the globe. As for the SMS SPAM, mobile operators reported that the SMS SPAM rate ranges between 1.25 and 1.75%.
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