CRTC joins forces with Australia to prevent phishing and spam

The Canadian Radio-Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is working with the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to fight spam. No, seriously.

In a media release issued on May 18th, 2017, the CRTC announced a partnership with the ACMA to “combat commercial electronic messages (spam) and telemarketing.”

In effect, the new agreement will enable both the CRTC and the ACMA to more easily track spam, and prevent its spread.

The agreement will also allow both agencies to research unauthorized and unsolicited telemarketing. This isn’t the first agreement of this kind between the CRTC and a foreign communications authority.

According to Eric Rancourt, director of media relations at the CRTC — Canada has a similar agreement with New Zealand, as well as two similar agreements with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

In addition, Canada signed an agreement with 11 other nations — including Australia — in June 2016, agreeing to fight “unlawful spam and unsolicited telecommunications.”

“This [the 11-nation agreement] was a high level, multilateral agreement that promotes cooperation between the signatories and includes commitment to sharing information and intelligence,” said Eric Rancourt, director of media relations at the CRTC, in a phone call with MobileSyrup.

“Then we signed a number of separate agreements with individual agencies to foster a more coordinated enforcement approach.”

With the new agreement between Canada and Australia, both nations have pledged to share information across departments, as well as utilize “opportunities for staff exchanges,” to better protect both nations.

As of this moment, the CRTC does not have plans to forge similar agreements with other nations.

“We’re certainly open to developing more agreements, but there’s nothing to announce at this time,” concluded Rancourt.

Source: CRTC