ISPA, the UK's association of Internet service providers, has given its evidence to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee. Over the past months the committee has heard numerous experts in the field of IT and cybersecurity, seeking to explore ways of solving current problems that affect this industry. Three representatives from ISPA gave their evidence at a session on 14 March and spoke about personal Internet security and the role of consumers, service providers and the government in creating a safe cyberspace.

The association has also been involved with the commission in the past, submitting written evidence and hosting a parliamentary advisory forum in January this year for industry, government and law enforcement fiures. In their personal appearance the three experts called for a multi-stakeholder approach that would take into account economic, social and technological issues surrounding cybersecurity. Jessica Hendrie-Liaño, Chair of ISPA Council commented: “Tackling personal Internet security must be a joint effort between the Internet industry, the Government and significantly end-users. It is important that the nature of the Internet is understood and the success of the industry’s hard work to date is acknowledged.”

ISPA's appearance at the House of Lords enquiry comes on the back of further proof that cyberspace is finding itself in a crisis, with cyberfraud and spam affecting many users across the globe. Latest data from Postini shows that February has been an extremely bad month for spam, with junk mail levels reaching 93 percent of all email traffic. And the most worrying issue is that spam, botnets, malware and cyberfraud have all become intertwined into a web of cybercrime that is designed to continue growing, with many more victims to come if the problem is not tackled sooner rather than later.