Facebook and Tata Communications Join MAAWG Board of Directors; Will Fight Spam and Online Abuse with Global Industry Organization
San Francisco, Aug. 18, 2010 – Demonstrating their commitment to work with the international online industry to protect consumers, Facebook and Tata Communications, a leading global telecom service provider that is part of India’s Tata Group, have joined the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group at the organization’s highest membership level and will serve on the MAAWG Board of Directors. MAAWG is the largest global organization targeting spam and other messaging exploits, and the new members will augment its presence both among social networking platforms and in emerging countries.
MAAWG has grown into an industry conduit for bringing together messaging experts working to curb spam and online abuse from around the world, from all aspects of the industry, and on all types of devices. Facebook has developers in over 180 countries and over 500 million users, including 150 million users actively accessing their accounts through mobile devices. The social media site will play an active role in MAAWG work, interfacing with other members to develop industry practices to safeguard end-users.
Tata Communications is a global telecom service provider based in India, part of the $70.8 billion Tata Group, and it delivers managed solutions to global enterprises, service providers and Indian consumers. Along with its pan-continent network, it has a leadership position in emerging markets and will share its broad perspective as MAAWG develops best practices and in the organization’s public policies discussions.
“Both Facebook and Tata Communications will be engaging with other important social media platforms, global ISPs and the diversified constituents within the industry, to not only make sure the online world is open and connected, but to also ensure it remains as safe as possible for consumers,” said Michael O’Reirdan, MAAWG Chairman.
Joe Sullivan, Facebook’s Chief Security Officer added, “Our deep commitment to site security requires the development of robust technologies and active engagement with organizations like MAAWG. We look forward to collaborating with the entire working group to aggressively fight messaging abuse.”
The MAAWG 20th General Meeting in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 4-6 will be an important venue for furthering this work. Attended by messaging and security specialists, public policy representatives and academic experts, it will feature professional training sessions open to the industry and multi-track presentations on global legislation, technology and policies to combat messaging abuse. The focus will be on participation in public policy and government initiatives along with ongoing committee work.
About the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG)
The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) is where the messaging industry comes together to work against spam, viruses, denial-of-service attacks and other online exploitation. MAAWG (www.MAAWG.org) represents over one billion mailboxes from some of the largest network operators worldwide. It is the only organization addressing messaging abuse holistically by systematically engaging all aspects of the problem, including technology, industry collaboration and public policy. MAAWG leverages the depth and experience of its global membership to tackle abuse on existing networks and new emerging services. It also works to educate global policy makers on the technical and operational issues related to online abuse and messaging. Headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., MAAWG is an open forum driven by market needs and supported by major network operators and messaging providers.
About Facebook
Founded in February 2004, Facebook's mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. Anyone can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment. Facebook is a privately held company and is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif.
About Tata Communications
Tata Communications is a leading global provider of a new world of communications. With a leadership position in emerging markets, Tata Communications leverages its advanced solutions capabilities and domain expertise across its global and pan-India network to deliver managed solutions to multi-national enterprises, service providers and Indian consumers. The Tata Global Network includes one of the most advanced and largest submarine cable networks, a Tier-1 IP network, with connectivity to more than 200 countries across 400 PoPs, and nearly 1 million square feet of data center and collocation space worldwide.
Tata Communications’ depth and breadth of reach in emerging markets includes leadership in Indian enterprise data services, leadership in global international voice, and strategic investments in operators in South Africa (Neotel), Sri Lanka (Tata Communications Lanka Limited) and Nepal (United Telecom Limited). Tata Communications Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India and its ADRs are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. (NYSE: TCL) www.tatacommunications.com.
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Media Contact: Linda Marcus, APR, 714-974-6356, LMarcus@astra.cc, Astra Communications
MAAWG Board of Directors: AOL; AT&T (NYSE: T); Cloudmark, Inc.; Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA); Cox Communications; Eloqua; Facebook; France Telecom (NYSE and Euronext: FTE); Goodmail Systems; Openwave Systems (NASDAQ: OPWV); Tata Communications (NYSE: TCL); Time Warner Cable; Verizon Communications; and Yahoo! Inc.
MAAWG Full Members: 1&1 Internet AG; Apple Inc.; Bizanga LTD; Cisco Systems, Inc.; Constant Contact (CTCT); e-Dialog; Edatis; Experian CheetahMail; Genius.com; Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ NASDAQ: IIJI); McAfee Inc.; PayPal; Return Path, Inc.; Spamhaus; Sprint; Symantec; YouSendIt; and Zynga, Inc.
A complete member list is available at /about/roster.
MAAWG Provides Free Messaging Security Training: Releases DKIM Implementation Tutorial By Leading Experts, Invites Industry to Previously Closed Training Courses
San Francisco, May 21, 2010 – As an industry service, the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG), the largest global anti-spam industry organization, has released its first online training video and is opening the technical training sessions at its next meeting to non-members for the first time, both at no cost. The new four-part tutorial by leading experts on DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is now available at the MAAWG website, and the live training courses on DNS security, complaint feedback loops, and DKIM at the MAAWG 19th General Meeting in Barcelona, Spain, on June 7 will be open to the industry.
MAAWG is offering the free training to educate messaging professionals worldwide on the latest technologies to help prevent spam and fraudulent messages from reaching consumers. According to the organization’s email metrics reports (www.maawg.org/email_metrics_report), almost 90% of all email traffic is spam that is stopped before it reaches end-users’ inboxes.
“We’re facing an ever-escalating war with spam, phishing and email fraud. Recognizing the expertise that gathers at our members-only MAAWG meetings, we wanted to step up to the plate and make this knowledge more accessible to the global industry. The training will enable more messaging specialists to use these tools, and the more professionals capable of implementing advanced technologies, the better the email experience will be for all consumers,” said Michael O’Reirdan, MAAWG chairman.
Free Tutorial and Training Sessions Focus on Strategic Technologies
Now available online, the free DKIM implementation video looks at this popular standard that allows an organization to take responsibility for a message by securely affixing a domain name to it. This allows receivers to evaluate the reputation of the organization. Originally presented in February 2010, the tutorial is the first video in the MAAWG Training Series and runs one hour and 40 minutes. It is delivered in 20 to 35 minute segments covering theory and implementation that can be accessed at www.maawg.org/activities/training.
The DKIM video features Dave Crocker, MAAWG senior technical advisor and principal of Brandenburg InternetWorking, and Murray S. Kucherawy, Cloudmark principal engineer. Crocker has been instrumental in the adoption of the standard, and Kucherawy is the principal author of both Sendmail libdkim and OpenDKIM, the most widely used open source DKIM software.
All of the live training sessions at the MAAWG meeting on June 7 also will be taught by working professionals with extensive knowledge about the topic. In the past, the training sessions were only available to MAAWG members who attended the general meetings. The sessions now open to qualified non-members include:
-- DNSSEC (DNS Security) – Paul Vixie, ARIN chairman, Internet Systems Consortium president, and author of several RFCs on DNS, will unravel the technical complexities and outline a path to successful implementation of DNSSEC by highlighting some of the major obstacles and challenges.
-- Complaint Feedback Loop Implementation – will look at the technical and social aspects of FBL, from business costs and benefits to the operational issues of creating and using a feedback loop. Kate Nowrouzi, Fishbowl manager of ISP relations, and Heather Lord, a senior engineer in anti-abuse technology at a major ISP, will lead the session.
-- DKIM Theory and Implementation – The leading standard for adding trust back into email, this session will explain how DKIM works and how to plan a DKIM strategy, deploy it on email servers, and use it as a trust-based tool. Taught by Crocker and Kucherawy, it will include any updates since the video was made.
Industry professionals can request to attend the June training sessions in Barcelona by selecting “training” as the inquiry type on the “Contact Us” form at the MAAWG website, /contact_form, and sending a message specifying the session with the requestor’s name, company, title, phone number and email address.
More information on the courses is available at www.maawg.org/activities/training. The MAAWG 19th General Meeting will be held June 8-10 in Barcelona. The three-day event following the training is open to members-only and will focus on mobile platforms. (Meeting details are in a May 18 MAAWG news release.)
About the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG)
The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) is where the messaging industry comes together to work against spam, viruses, denial-of-service attacks and other online exploitation. MAAWG (www.maawg.org) represents almost one billion mailboxes from some of the largest network operators worldwide. It is the only organization addressing messaging abuse holistically by systematically engaging all aspects of the problem, including technology, industry collaboration and public policy. MAAWG leverages the depth and experience of its global membership to tackle abuse on existing networks and new emerging services. Headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., MAAWG is an open forum driven by market needs and supported by major network operators and messaging providers.
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Media Contact: Linda Marcus, APR, +1-714-974-6356, LMarcus@astra.cc, Astra Communications
MAAWG Board of Directors: AOL; AT&T (NYSE: T); Cloudmark, Inc.; Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA); Cox Communications; Eloqua; France Telecom (NYSE and Euronext: FTE); Goodmail Systems; Openwave Systems (NASDAQ: OPWV); Time Warner Cable; Verizon Communications; and Yahoo! Inc.
MAAWG Full Members: 1&1 Internet AG; Apple Inc.; Bizanga LTD; Cisco Systems, Inc.; Constant Contact (CTCT); e-Dialog; Experian CheetahMail; Genius.com; Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ NASDAQ: IIJI); McAfee Inc.; PayPal; Return Path, Inc.; Spamhaus; Sprint; Symantec; and Zynga, Inc.
A complete member list is available at /about/roster.
MAAWG Hosts GSMA Security Group in Europe Industry Meeting Attacks Spam Across Platforms, Promotes International, Industry-wide Cooperation
San Francisco, May 18, 2010 –The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group will host the GSMA Security Group at the MAAWG 19th General Meeting in Barcelona on June 8-10 with a multi-track event focusing on all forms of spam delivery, including mobile, broadband, terrestrial and Web messaging. The meeting will also feature an insiders’ panel discussing the recent crackdown on the Mariposa botnet, sessions on mobile spam and abuse reporting technologies, and a look at critical technical and international public policy issues affecting abuse abatement.
The GSM Association Security Group (GSMA-SG) will participate on various MAAWG panels and will hold its own closed sessions. In addition, MAAWG is making several of its June 7 technical training sessions available to non-member industry professionals at no cost in an effort to share critical information with the market.
GSMA SG Chairman Charles Brookson said, “We both face very similar challenges, and we are looking forward to a fruitful meeting leading to ongoing cooperation."
The three-day MAAWG meeting will include:
- Sessions on mobile spam reporting 7726, the state of bots on mobile networks, and expert discussions on the differences between Internet email and mobile messaging
- Panels on the Mariposa botnet and other international private/public initiatives to fight bots around the world
- An update on current international public policy concerns and potential projects
- DKIM (DomainKey Indentified Mail) signing strategies and MARF (Mail Abuse Reporting Format) sessions
- Working sessions on best practices for troubleshooting delivery problems and senders abuse reporting processes
- A comparison of the best – and worst – email marketing practices in both the United States and Europe
- A review of domain hacking and protection technologies, DNS Security case studies and DNSSEC deployment
To facilitate industry-wide dialogue, the ISP Closed Colloquium, usually restricted to MAAWG service providers, will be opened to all MAAWG members on June 10, including senders and vendors.
MAAWG, the largest industry organization working worldwide to combat all types of messaging abuse, invited GSMA to participate in the meeting because of its significant role representing the international mobile communications industry.
MAAWG Chairman Michael O’Reirdan said, “Spam, phishing and other types of messaging abuse move across devices and platforms as seamlessly as they travel across country borders these days. At MAAWG, our mission is to pursue industry cooperation to protect consumers and provide a safe online experience.”
Information on the meeting is available at the MAAWG website, www.maawg.org. Industry professionals also can find more information on the training there.
About the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG)
The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) is where the messaging industry comes together to work against spam, viruses, denial-of-service attacks and other online exploitation. MAAWG (www.MAAWG.org) represents almost one billion mailboxes from some of the largest network operators worldwide. It is the only organization addressing messaging abuse holistically by systematically engaging all aspects of the problem, including technology, industry collaboration and public policy. MAAWG leverages the depth and experience of its global membership to tackle abuse on existing networks and new emerging services. Headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., MAAWG is an open forum driven by market needs and supported by major network operators and messaging providers.
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Media Contact: Linda Marcus, APR, +1-714-974-6356, LMarcus@astra.cc, Astra Communications
MAAWG Board of Directors: AOL; AT&T (NYSE: T); Cloudmark, Inc.; Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA); Cox Communications; Eloqua; France Telecom (NYSE and Euronext: FTE); Goodmail Systems; Openwave Systems (NASDAQ: OPWV); Time Warner Cable; Verizon Communications; and Yahoo! Inc.
MAAWG Full Members: 1&1 Internet AG; Apple Inc.; Bizanga LTD; Cisco Systems, Inc.; Constant Contact (CTCT); e-Dialog; Experian CheetahMail; Genius.com; Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ NASDAQ: IIJI); McAfee Inc.; PayPal; Return Path, Inc.; Spamhaus; Sprint; Symantec; and Zynga, Inc.