CGI.br: Brazil no longer in the list of top 10 countries that send the most spam in the world

SAO PAULO, April 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br - Comite Gestor da Internet no Brasil) is presenting the first assessment of the Port 25 Management adoption in Brazil.

One of the results is the country's exit from the top of the list of countries that send spam, according to the CBL (Composite Blocking List - http://cbl.abuseat.org/country.html) statistics, which on a daily basis updates data on IPs that have sent spam in the last 10 days.

In 2009, Brazil was in first place, with more than one million IPs, which corresponded to 17% of all IPs listed. Today, it is in 18th place, with less than 110,000 IPs, accounting for only 2% of the IPs listed. The improvement of Brazil's position in this ranking has always been one of the objectives of Port 25 Management.

Launched by CGI.br in 2005, the Port 25 Management program includes a series of agreements aimed at reducing the use of broadband networks, by spammers, for direct delivery. The initiative reached its final stage in December of 2012 with the action by telecommunications providers which through network management techniques, blocked outgoing spam traffic.

According to Henrique Faulhaber, board member of CGI.br and coordinator of Antispam projects, the results are extremely positive.  "We are tracking the results, and in the last six months the development has been very good, clearly influenced by the final phase of the measure's adoption," Faulhaber said. "However, it is necessary to keep tracking the results, because we have a very big network and the application of the measure to Brazilian broadband networks must occur on an ongoing basis.  The expectation is that we will continue to fall in the rankings," he concludes.

For Eduardo Levy, board member of CGI.br and CEO of SindiTelebrasil, the management of Port 25 is an example of the benefit that network management can provide, both for the system as well as for telecommunications users, who will have a more secure environment for using the Internet. For Levy, actions of this sort should be undertaken whenever they may prove indispensable to ensure network security and stability. "The telecommunications providers' contribution was decisive in reducing the amount of spam coming from Brazil, and these results were only possible thanks to the implementation of a blocking policy for certain data packets, through Internet traffic management."

Faulhaber adds that Port 25 Management is just one of the initiatives coordinated by CGI.br and implemented by the Brazilian Network Information Center (NIC.br - Nucleo de Informacao e Coordenacao do Ponto BR) for reducing malicious messages. As examples, he highlights the permanent campaign conducted by the site http://antispam.br/ and the Internet Security Best Practices Document (Cartilha de Seguranca para Internet) http://cartilha.cert.br/, produced by the Brazilian National Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT.br - Centro de Estudos, Resposta e Tratamento de Incidentes de Seguranca no Brasil).  Both projects are intended to guide and advise Internet users. Accordingly, as Faulhaber observes, "Internet users in Brazil will be able to use the network in ways that are increasingly secure."

Eduardo Fumes Parajo, CGI.br board member and executive director of the superior consulting board of the Brazilian Internet Association (Abranet - Associacao Brasileira de Internet) notes the benefits the measure brings for providers: "the reduction of the volume of spam coming out of Brazilian networks indirectly entails lower volumes of messages being processed by all providers, which reduces costs related to the operation of e-mail services, and better use of the network infrastructure."   The trend is that these numbers should continue to improve, also as a consequence of the closing of Port 25.

Contacts:
Daniela Marques - daniela.marques@s2publicom.com.br, +55-11-3027-0215
Everton Schultz - Everton.Schultz@s2publicom.com.br