Cybersecurity Awareness Month and M3AAWG68 come together this October to turn awareness, expertise, and collaboration into action. Use the subscribe option to receive notifications when a new article is published.
A Month of Awareness, A Meeting Built for Action
The M3AAWG community is heading to Paris, France, for our 68th General Meeting, October 26–29, 2026. As a true Working Group, attendees and guest speakers will be zoned in on sharing what they’re seeing across the abuse ecosystem, identifying and responding to emerging issues, exchanging proven strategies that can be put into action across organizations, and moving ongoing M3AAWG Initiatives from discussion toward actionable deliverables.
Four Days. One Community. A Lot to Tackle.
Here’s a glimpse at some of the topics we’ll be tackling in Paris:
- Emerging threats in phishing, scams, fraud, telecom, domains, and other abuse types
- AI as a risk and as an anti-abuse tool
- Strengthening email and SMS ecosystems
- Trust & Safety, policy, privacy, and user protections
- Industry cooperation and shared defenses
Monday Is for Learning: Something for Every Experience Level
Attendees are invited to kick off M3AAWG68 with technical trainings developed specifically for the M3AAWG community. This year’s Paris offerings will explore Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) Fundamentals, Engineering Agentic Harnesses and Loops, and LLM Optimization in Practice. Monday’s training sessions span a range of technical experience levels and provide practical learning opportunities tailored to our diverse audience.
The New Attendee Welcome to M3AAWG: Community, Leadership, and Guides session introduces first-time General Meeting attendees to all things M3AAWG, how to plan for the week without getting overwhelmed by options, and ways to stay engaged and involved at M3AAWG throughout the week and beyond. If this will be your first General Meeting, you will want to plan to attend this insightful session, guaranteed to set you up to feel confident that you belong here, your ideas matter, and you are here for a reason.
Expertise That Informs. Perspectives That Challenge The Norm. Conversations That Inspire.
The M3AAWG community truly pulled out all the stops for our 68th General Meeting, submitting more general session topics than for any previous meeting. That record-breaking participation gave the Program Committee an incredible pool of ideas to build from, resulting in a carefully curated agenda that directly reflects the interests, priorities, and real-world challenges facing our community.
The agenda also welcomes several guest speakers who will bring unique expertise and perspectives to the conversation, including insights shared specifically within M3AAWG’s global trusted forum. Together, it makes for a meeting shaped by the community, grounded in the challenges members are facing today, and focused on the conversations that matter most right now.
Keynote: Cybercrime Wins When We Work Alone: Your Data Can Power Investigations to Help Catch Bad Actors
Presented by Aisling Kelly, Head of Cybercrime Division, Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law, Council of Europe
Cybercrime thrives in isolation, making collaboration between the private sector and law enforcement essential to identifying cybercriminals and strengthening accountability across borders. This keynote explores how the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime and its 2nd Additional Protocol provide a global legal framework for responsible cross-border cooperation and data disclosure while respecting privacy, data protection, and human rights. If you work in anti-abuse, you belong in the room for this eye-opening keynote.
Open Roundtables (ORTs): Real Challenges. Open Discussions. Community-Driven Solutions.
Often considered the beating heart of a M3AAWG General Meeting, Open Roundtables (ORTs) allow attendees to actively engage in facilitated, constructive, and strategic discussions around timely anti-abuse challenges. These conversations are where ideas take shape, new thought processes emerge, and future M3AAWG Initiatives and work items often are born. ORTs are a prime example of how we put the “work” in “working group”.
Working Sessions: Ideas on the Table. Tangible Progress.
Throughout the meeting week, attendees will have opportunities to roll up their sleeves and advance M3AAWG Initiatives, contribute to Priority Committee and Special Interest Group (SIG) discussions, and collaborate directly with peers on the challenges facing the anti-abuse community.
All Work and No Joie de Vivre? Not at M3AAWG68.
With a full week of conversations, learning, and hands-on work, we need to make a little room for something equally important: having some fun together. M3AAWG Night Out gives registered attendees a chance to step away from the meeting rooms, unwind, and continue building the relationships that make this community so strong. A bit of Joie de Vivre in Paris is sure to reenergize attendees ahead of the final day of the 68th General Meeting.
Join the Anti-Abuse Community in Paris
If you’re a M3AAWG member who has been on the fence about joining us in Paris, take the leap! The Paris agenda is one you won’t want to miss; the location is ::chefs-kiss::, and let’s be honest, even if Paris isn’t your dream destination, the abuse threats we’re tackling aren’t waiting for us to catch up.
Be in the room. Bring what you’re seeing, add your expertise to the conversation, brainstorm solutions with your peers, and help turn collaboration into meaningful action against online abuse.
Cybersecurity Awareness Month Won't End After October 31 at M3AAWG
The four consumer actions promoted by the National Cybersecurity Alliance during Cybersecurity Awareness Month closely align with M3AAWG’s vision to end online abuse. These fundamental security practices are reflected across M3AAWG Best Practices and remain some of the simplest and most effective ways individuals can strengthen their defenses online:
- Use strong passwords and a password manager
- Turn on multifactor authentication
- Recognize and report scams
- Update your software
M3AAWG is a global trusted forum where industry professionals come together to discuss, develop, and advance solutions to online abuse. However, our responsibility doesn’t stop with the industry. Making the internet safer also means helping people at every level of technical experience understand and adopt the everyday practices that make them harder to target and, collectively, make the online ecosystem harder to abuse.
Protection begins at the user’s fingertips.
Every stronger password, enabled layer of authentication, reported scam, and software update removes another opportunity for cybercriminals to succeed.
Throughout October, M3AAWG will share educational materials and practical resources to help internet users of all technical levels strengthen their security and make it harder for cybercriminals to win. That commitment extends well beyond Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and we invite our community to help keep cybersecurity education, awareness, and action moving forward year-round by sharing resources within your network, community, family, and friends.
The Anti-Abuse Work Will Continue After Paris
The M3AAWG Program Committee is always looking a few meetings ahead, and we want your ideas to help shape what comes next. General Meeting Submissions are open for Upcoming General Meetings, including the 69th General Meeting in Vancouver, Canada (February 2027) and the 70th General Meeting in Dublin, Ireland (June 2027). If there’s a challenge, emerging trend, or conversation you think the M3AAWG community should be tackling, now is the time to start bringing it forward.