Politicans form transatlantic spam alliance

The All Party Parliamentary Internet Group (APIG) has partnered with the Internet Caucus, its counterpart at the US Congress, in a bid to tackle spammers.

Speaking to ZDNet UK on Wednesday, APIG chairman Derek Wyatt MP said the move would improve communication on e-commerce between the two countries and would help tighten laws on spamming.

"We'll share best practices on spam," said Wyatt. "And we'll be having a joint meeting every year either here or over there. That will really help to beat things like spam and spim [spam over instant messaging]."

Wyatt began his fight against spam two years ago, when he developed a personal dislike for junk email.

On 5 April, Wyatt will introduce a ten-minute rule bill in Parliament to discuss updating the Computer Misuse Act. APIG is pushing for the criminalisation of denial-of-service attacks and to lengthen jail sentences for hacking crimes from one to two years. The group hopes that by increasing penalties, hacking will become an extraditable offence.