Because Effective Anti-Abuse Collaboration Requires a Trusted Global Forum

Download the M3AAWG Priorities and Focus Areas

The Messaging, Malware, and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group provides a collaborative global trusted forum that brings industry together to help fight and prevent online abuse. Working with members, industry groups and global partners, M3AAWG will continue its efforts to help prevent online abuse, focusing on Communications & Content (Securing the Conversation), Platform & Infrastructure (Hardening the Stack), User & Endpoint (Protecting the Edge), and Policy & Regulations (Applying the Expertise)..

PRIORITIES AND FOCUS AREAS

As online abuse threats grow more advanced, WAAWG is proactively evolving and adapting its work to meet emerging challenges, strengthening its organizational capabilities, expanding partnerships, and continuing to foster a diverse and inclusive culture.

Communications & Content

Securing the Conversation: Preventing, detecting, filtering, and stopping abuse in the content stream.

Detecting and blocking spoofed messages, lookalike domains, and impersonstion attacks.

Preventing ransomware and malicious payload delivery via phishing OR codes, and embedded links.

Mitigating abuse of trust and reputation through deceptive sender tactics.

Addressing Al-generated spam, phishing, and other content manipulation tactics.

Defending against evasion techniques designed to bypass filters and classifiers.

Platform & infrastructure

Hardening the Stack: Addressing where abuse originates, scales, and evades detection.

Preventing abuse through compromised accounts infrastructure, outdated cryptography, and other service misuse.

Detecting and mitigating fraudulent identity, platform, and account misuse.

Monitoring systemic threats targeting APIs, interfaces, and backend systems.

Identifying and mitigating abuse via malicious domains, botnets, open source, and insecure devices

Evolving authentication protocols (e.g. SPF, DKIM DMARC, & MFA) to prevent abuse

User & Endpoint

Protecting the Edge: Focusing efforts where abuse lands, impacts users, and exploits trust.

Detecting and managing abuse across encrypted, proprietary, and other user environments.

DDoS commaand and control, amplification, and other DNS attacks.

Phishing tactics including QR code, push notifications, and other mobile vectors.

Spoofing and fraud through biometric, authentication, and other novel techniques.

Device-centric credential threats: SIM swapping MFA bypass, etc.

Policy & Regulations

Applying the Expertise: Establishing policies and practices, coordinating industry actions, and leading and adapting to global policy shifts.

Aligning operations with existing and emerging data privacy and cybersecurity regulations.

Enhancing transparency and accountability through policy, and compliance.

Strengthening industry response capabilities through collaborative information sharing and partnerships

Enabling effective industry coordination on opportunities, challenges, and threats.

Developing actionable abuse repotting standards and workflows.

OUR VALUES

We Value CLARITY

These are the cote beliefs and guiding principles that shape how M3WAAWG operates. It is our culture and internal compass for how we collaborate, interact with stakeholders, and direct our efforts.

C

Callaboration

We are in this together as a working group, driving real results through shared contributions and effort.

L

LEARNING

We invest in each other and grow by resourcing our members communities, and partners through shared learning and support.

A

AWARENESS

we keep our eyes and minds open. We challenge assumptions, stay curious, and seek better solutions, through inquiry, hypothesis, and a commitiment to test, learn, and inprove.

R

RESPONSIBILITY

We tackle the hard challenges with a commitment to progress, and hold ourselves accountable to solving issues which move us closer to a world free of online abuse.

I

INVESTED

We show up committed and invested in our cause. We invest our time and talent to delivcr on our mission.

T

TRUST

We trust in the community and champion trust by embedding data identity and protection principles into everything we build ensuring integrity across people, systems, and platforms.

Y

YOU BELONG HERE

We are committed to a community of inclusion, respect, and representation - where diverse voices are not only welcomed but vital.

 

M³AAWG Mission and Vision Statements (Multiple Languages)

Vision Statement: A world free of online abuse.

Mission Statement: To be the leading global trusted forum bringing industry together to innovate, collaborate, and maximize our impact in prevention of online abuse, through our targeted priorities, focus areas, and world-class best practices.

Who We Are 

Founded in 2004, the Messaging Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M³AAWG) is a technology-neutral global industry association. As a working group, we develop cooperative approaches for fighting online abuse. Our more than 200 members worldwide include Internet service providers (ISPs), communications service providers, social networking companies, hosting and cloud services providers, major antivirus vendors and security vendors, email service providers, leading hardware and software vendors and major brands, as well as invited experts, government agencies and related industry groups and industry partners. 

What We Do 

In addition to ongoing assessment and discussion of relevant topics via our committees and special interest groups, we develop and publish best practices papers (translated when available), position statements, training and educational videos, and other materials to help the online community fight abuse with a focus on operational practices. 

Our public policy advocacy (which is not lobbying) provides technical and operational guidance to governments and Internet and public policy agencies developing new Internet policies, standards, and legislation. 

How We Work 

M3AAWG maintains a diverse and inclusive culture while providing its members a trusted forum and a framework for open discussion and collaboration on online abuse issues in an atmosphere of confidentiality and cooperation. 

Our work is driven by members who contribute ideas and content for best practices and other initiatives with input from a diverse community across industries, government, academia and civil society groups, as well as industry partners. Information and best practices are shared with the broader online abuse community as appropriate.  

Members participate in M3AAWG through relevant committees or special interest groups (SIG) in support of organizational priorities, focus areas and initiatives. 

Through global partners (https://www.m3aawg.org/our-partners), we collaborate to combine expertise and best practices across a number of complementary groups to fight online abuse.

In addition to regular committee, SIG, and board meetings, we gather three times a year in North America and Europe for working sessions, roundtables and keynotes. These multi-track meetings held over four days feature presentations by academic researchers, public policy advisors, government representatives, industry experts, and innovative technology leaders with open discussion among industry peers. 

Benefits and Value for Our Members 

• Diverse and inclusive culture
• Confidential and collaborative forums, including access to members only content
• Global perspective
• Breadth and depth of expertise and knowledge
• Best practices
• Content, and industry communications including News, our blog, videos and social media links provide frequent updates. 

Questions? Please contact Amy Cadagin, M3AAWG Executive Director, at  https://www.m3aawg.org/contact-us