A new approach to fighting spam includes the use of better technology to tackle the problem, according to a panel of government officials

A new approach to fighting spam includes the use of better technology to tackle the problem, according to a panel of government officials. Unsolicited commercial or bulk e-mail advertising, commonly known as spam, is annoying and offensive, wastes network resources and costs organizations money in lost productivity. It spreads viruses and perpetrates frauds and scams, several officials said during a spam discussion Wednesday at this year's National Conference of State Legislatures in San Francisco. Eileen Harrington, who leads the Federal Trade Commission's Marketing Practices program, said it's "highly likely" that some federal legislation regarding spam will be enacted before the year's end. But that won't solve the problem, officials said. Because spammers are becoming good at evading filters, a more comprehensive solution is needed, said Marketing Practices counsel for Microsoft Corp. Market-driven solutions, such as the use of sophisticated filters, rules-based systems and the creation of safe lists of legitimate senders can work, Ashworth said. But, he added, governments have to differentiate between legitimate commercial e-mail and spam, which espouses fraudulent or misleading claims, and impose stronger and more "meaningful" criminal and civil penalties on the latter. Spam costs U.S. corporations $8.9 billion annually, said California state Sen. Debra Bowen. She cited recent private sector research that concluded spam now represents more than 50 percent of all e-mail sent. And, by 2007, the average American will get 3,900 pieces of spam per year, she said.