The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has vowed to take bolder steps to crack down on spam messages sent via internet and mobile phones, which is rapidly spreading with others cyber-crimes. — Photo cafef.vn

HA NOI (VNS) — The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has vowed to take bolder steps to crack down on spam messages sent via internet and mobile phones, which is rapidly spreading with others cyber-crimes.

MIC Minister Nguyen Bac Son said during the TV programme People Ask, Ministers Answer on Sunday that MIC would co-operate closely with authorities at all levels, particularly inspection offices to strengthen their work on the supervision and management of internet usage.

He said the co-operation would also aim to improve social awareness, particularly from internet service providers for preventing spam and cyber-crimes.

The invasion of spam into the internet and mobile phones has returned to attack after a decrease during the Tet holidays due to a series of regulations issued by the MIC, internet experts said.

The experts had raised a question on whether all these measures are ineffective in the fight against spam.

However, according to Son, all questions should have answers. He said the key point was that there should be close co-operation and unity among the whole society, authorities and the internet providers and users themselves.

The MIC would continue to promulgate legislation and legal documents in the management of OTT messaging, a new information service that provides customers with convenience but causes difficulties for management authorities.

OTT stands for over-the-top and is referred to as "value added". Most of the users have been using OTT services without actually realising it. Simply put, OTT refers to the service that customers use over the network services of their service provider.

The ministry has urged OTT service providers to share profits with internet providers, which are known as the infrastructure network service providers so that the State can be available for managing the activities and maintaining security for the whole internet environment.

Son said MIC was also conducting research on the promulgation of a new circular for procedures involving signing contracts between internet providers and the OTT service providers.

Viet Nam is facing growing challenges in managing the operation of illegal websites providing negative and bad information, despite a variety of new decree and regulations to tackle the issue, including the Decree 72 two years ago and a Circular last September.

Son said this year, the National Assembly had approved a Government programme for formulating a draft law on information security.

He said this was a very important law as it would help build a legal corridor for internet environment management and for ensuring responsibility and benefits of both service providers and customers. — VNS