Among the other things, the Toolkit addresses technical solutions and filtering. Filters are considered an important part of an anti-spam strategy, as they contribute to containing the spam phenomenon, diminishing the amount of spam we find daily in our inboxes and therefore protecting the reliability and availability of email services.

At the same time it is recognized that filters do not represent the ultimate solution. Filters are costly, need to be updated regularly, and may cause the problem of “false positive”, i.e. wrongly classify a legitimate email message as spam and as a result eliminate it from the user’s inbox. In addition, in order to bypass filters, spammers are constantly improving their spamming techniques and sending an increasing amount of spam messages, engaging in a sort of arms’ race with ISPs.

In this context, the Anti-Spam Toolkit stresses the important role of internet service providers, which should take steps not only to block incoming spam but also to limit the amount of spam sent from their servers. Examples of measures currently being considered or implemented include closing open relays, port 25 management, authentication techniques, etc.

As mentioned above, however, technical solutions alone are not enough to curb spam. For this reason, the Toolkit includes a wider array of recommendations calling for the establishment of clear anti-spam legislation, effective application of sanctions, and increased cooperation and harmonization at the international level.

In addition, education is considered one of the main pillars of the anti-spam fight, as users are the victims of spam, but also have control of their inbox, computers and personal resources. Users need to be able to deal with spam, recognize eventual threats, and protect their information and resources. To help government and other interested parties in developing anti-spam educational campaigns, the Toolkit website includes pages gathering education and awareness materials in several languages.