Speaking at a fringe meeting on internet security at the Labour
Party Conference last week, O'Brien said that while he would prefer
to see self-regulation in the industry, he was considering
legislative measures to tackle the security threat posed by spam
and viruses.
According to reports, one part of his "multi-pronged" approach
might include the granting of increased powers to Richard Thomas,
the UK's Information Commissioner, to investigate and act against
these threats.
The Office of the Information Commissioner already has
enforcement powers to deal with unsolicited commercial e-mail,
cookies and other privacy issues in electronic communications
following the coming into force of the Privacy and Electronic
Communications Regulations last December.
The additional powers might take the form of "stop now" orders,
based on the existing "stop now" enterprise legislation," said
O'Brien, according to ComputerWeekly.com.
They might also include the power to reveal the source of rogue
communications, and the removal of the current exemption that
permits marketers to send spam to businesses.
