The government is stepping up policies to pre-emptively block invalid numbers and strengthen sender authentication to prevent damage from illegal spam. It is a strategy to block spam at the sending stage.

The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Communications Commission on April 14 held the fifth full meeting of a public-private consultative body on responding to illegal spam in Seoul. Participants included related agencies such as the Personal Information Protection Commission and the National Police Agency, as well as the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), mobile carriers including KT, LG Uplus and SK Telecom, handset makers and bulk text-message providers.

The ministry shared progress on introducing a number-blocking system that blocks text messages sent to unallocated numbers or numbers whose use has been suspended. The Korea Telecommunications Operators Association (KTOA) explained that applying an "illegal spam invalid-number blocking system" in the first half of this year would further reduce the number of spam reports.

The ministry also announced additional improvement measures to block illegal spam flowing in from overseas and the application of improved procedures to check certificates of telecommunications service use to verify the identity of bulk text senders.

The commission announced its direction for pushing to eradicate illegal spam, including carriers sending guidance texts to recipients of illegal spam, measures to respond to voice spam, and matters related to enacting and amending laws and regulations.

KISA will work with telecommunications operators and device makers to shift the illegal spam response system to an artificial intelligence (AI)-based approach. It will build an AI-based joint response platform to strengthen the private sector's phishing detection capabilities and set up a rapid response and blocking system. It also plans to expand sharing and opening of illegal spam data to block it more systematically.

Choi Woo-hyuk (최우혁), director general for network policy at the ministry, said it would actively support efforts so tasks currently under way can be carried out without disruption by further strengthening public-private cooperation.

Shin Young-kyu (신영규), director general for broadcasting and communications user policy at the commission, said it would swiftly implement a sender qualification certification system to normalise the bulk text distribution market and push forward, with speed, the enactment and amendment of subordinate regulations for imposing penalty surcharges related to illegal spam.