Author: Amy Cadagin (M3AAWG Executive Director)

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was designed to harmonize different data privacy laws across European countries in an effort to protect the privacy and data protection rights of individuals and empower them to better understand and make decisions on who processes their data and in what way.

This February, M3AAWG awarded Cristine Hoepers, Ph.D., the general manager of CERT.br, the Brazilian national Computer Emergency Response Team, with the annual Mary Litynski Award. Now in its tenth year, this award honors the memory of Mary and the work she did to shape M3AAWG into the leading organization that it is today, one that is dedicated to fighting online abuse such as malware, DDoS attacks, election security attacks, and more.

The United States is facing an unprecedented election season. Instead of in-person rallies and speaking slots, campaigns are now entirely online, relying primarily on digital engagement with voters. Never in history have candidates had so many ways of reaching voters directly or indirectly, the most popular—and effective—is text messaging to mobile devices. However, poor execution and disregard for established guidelines could undermine the potency of this channel. In a time when digital isn’t a nice to have but the only connection to the voting populace, getting it wrong will certainly spell disaster.

Local Number Portability (LNP) is available in many countries and regions. This service, popularized by consumer mobile phone use and commonly known as number porting, enables users to retain their telephone number when switching from their existing communications service provider (or carrier) to a new service provider. In many cases, LNP support is legally mandated, and the mandates may include strict process requirements and timeframes for action by the existing service provider.