Governments urged to battle spam

EUROPEAN governments have been told to step up the battle against email spam, spyware and malicious software that have become a major threat to people’s privacy and finances.

Criminals have taken over the activity and are flooding cyberspace with spam that is selling illegal products or trying to steal personal banking and other information.

Experts say that between half and 85% of all email sent during the past year is spam and almost a third of it came from inside Europe.