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A program that spies on keystrokes and mouse clicks to capture passwords and other personal information from computer users has begun circulating disguised as a screensaver purporting to attack spam-related websites. This “Trojan horse” program is the latest twist in a controversial saga that began with the release of an anti-spam screensaver by Lycos Europe on 30 November. The www.makelovenotspam.com screensaver aimed to clog up the bandwidth of spam sites by barraging them with fake data. Experts believe the new trojan program may have been developed in retaliation to the Lycos screensaver, perhaps to deter users from downloading the it...

WASHINGTON — Congress on Monday approved the first national effort to stem the flood of unwanted e-mail pitches offering prescription drugs, cheap loans and other come-ons. President Bush has indicated he intends to sign the measure into law. Indeed the White House revamped its own e-mail system this summer over a flood of so-called spam. Clogged inboxes have become a leading irritation among Internet users, an increasing business expense for companies and a popular target for Washington interest before an election year. The House voted without dissent to approve slight changes Senate lawmakers made to the "can spam" legislation, which...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate signed off Tuesday on a bill that would outlaw the most annoying forms of junk e-mail and create a "do not spam" registry, bringing the first national anti-spam law one step closer to reality. Online marketers who flood e-mail in boxes with pornography and get-rich-quick schemes would face jail time and multimillion-dollar fines under the measure, which passed by a voice vote. The bill has now passed both chambers of Congress, but the House of Representatives must still approve minor technical changes before sending it to the White House, Senate aides said. President Bush...

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - European Union digital privacy rules came into force Friday requiring companies to get consent before sending e-mail, tracking personal data on Web sites or pinpointing callers' locations via satellite-linked mobile phones. The law steps up the global war on spam and "is a key tool to strengthen consumer confidence in the Internet and electronic communications," said EU Enterprise Commissioner Erkki Liikanen. But how the enforce the new rules are left to the 15 EU nations. Fines vary among the countries, and unlike the strictest laws in Virginia and other U.S. states, European Union rules don't...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate has voted to outlaw deceptive "spam" e-mail, and set up a "do-not-spam" registry for those who do not want to receive unsolicited commercial e-mail. Internet "spammers" who flood e-mail inboxes with pornography and get-rich-quick schemes could face jail time and million-dollar fines under the bill, which passed by a vote of 97 to 0. The vote marks the first time the Senate has taken action against an online scourge that now accounts for 50 percent of all e-mail traffic, frustrating consumers and costing businesses billions of dollars in wasted bandwidth and lost productivity. Similar...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California will prohibit Internet advertisers from sending unsolicited e-mails under the toughest law of its kind in the nation, providing for fines up to $1 million. Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation Tuesday that targets not only the firms that package and send spam to consumers, but also the companies whose products and services are being advertised. The measure covers all unsolicited commercial e-mail sent or received in California and imposes fines of up to $1 million per incident. "There are no loopholes, no way of getting around it," said the bill's author, state Sen. Kevin Murray, a...

BEIJING (AP) -- China has blocked 127 spam servers around the world in its latest battle against junk mail on the Internet, the official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday. "This has been the first large-scale spammer blockade launched by the Chinese Internet industry," Ren Jinqiang, an official with the Internet Society of China, was quoted by Xinhua as saying. Ren said E-mail messages from blocked servers will automatically be refused. The sanctions will be lifted after the servers stop sending junk mail for three months, Xinhua said. Ninety of the blocked servers were in Taiwan, eight were in mainland China,...

A bipartisan group of legislators and some citizen groups, concerned that current legislative proposals to combat e-mail spam are inadequate, are engaged in a major push for tougher alternatives. The moves come amid intensified lobbying and political maneuvering over the issue. With outrage over spam at fever pitch, Congress is widely expected to pass the first national anti-spam law this year. In the House, a new bill is likely to be introduced this week that its sponsors promise is tougher than legislation offered last month by Reps. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La.) and F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.). Although Tauzin and...