Mobile

San Francisco, November 17, 2015 – Looking to share its advanced research on bot behavior, emerging infections and mitigation processes with the security community, Georgia Institute of Technology is the first academic institution to join the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group.  The university sees the closed, vetted structure within M3AAWG as a rare opportunity to disseminate its findings on the latest threats directly to network operators and public policy advisors while also obtaining feedback from these industry professionals, according to Dr. Manos Antonakakis, computer systems and software assistant professor at Georgia Tech, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and M3AAWG Academic Committee co-chair.

"M3AAWG bridges the gap between academia and industry.  As researchers, we often identify new strategies to understand and disable complex illicit infrastructures, such as botnets and malware, and objectively measure other aspects of Internet abuse, for example, spam and ad fraud.  We want to share this information with the security community as quickly as possible and M3AAWG is an active channel for disseminating this data.  On the other hand, in order to commercialize this work, we need input from security professionals who are dealing with these challenges every day.  M3AAWG closes this loophole by providing the operational feedback that helps us turn our research into products industry can use to solve specific threats," Antonakakis said.

M3AAWG is recruiting university cybersecurity research programs to join its anti-abuse work so it can provide its members access to the experimental processes and academic studies that help improve end-user security.  The in-depth research at these institutions is especially important in a world where criminals can change a bot's coding to avoid detection in just minutes and new threats are always emerging.  In addition, universities also can participate in other projects.  For example, Dr. Mustaque Ahamad, professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Computer Science, is co-chair of the M3AAWG Voice and Telephony Abuse Special Interest Group, according to Michael Adkins, M3AAWG chairman.

Adkins said, "Georgia Tech has developed one of the leading computer science programs in the world and has a strong understanding of anti-abuse issues.  They have presented groundbreaking research at our meetings in the past, including early research on the effectiveness of bot mitigation notifications with its study of the DNS Charger program in 2013, data on new malware infections and updates on known threats.  We look forward to strengthening our relationship with their researchers, bringing the latest threat findings to our members, and providing input on new research and processes."

The recently established Institute for Information Security and Privacy (IISP) at Georgia Tech will significantly grow these research programs and related curricula to make fundamental advances in cybersecurity. U.S. News and World Report ranked its computer engineering program among the top ten in the nation.  

About Georgia Tech

The Georgia Institute of Technology (http://www.gatech.edu/), also known as Georgia Tech, is one of the nation’s leading research universities, providing a focused, technologically based education to more than 25,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Georgia Tech has many nationally recognized programs, all top-ranked by peers and publications alike, and is ranked in the nation’s top 10 public universities by U.S. News and World Report. It offers degrees through the Colleges of Architecture, Computing, Engineering, Sciences, the Scheller College of Business, and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech has more than 100 centers focused on interdisciplinary research that consistently contribute vital research and innovation to American government, industry and business.

About the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG)

The Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG) is where the industry comes together to work against bots, malware, spam, viruses, denial-of-service attacks and other online exploitation. M3AAWG (www.m3aawg.org) represents more than one billion mailboxes from some of the largest network operators worldwide. It leverages the depth and experience of its global membership to tackle abuse on existing networks and new emerging services through technology, collaboration and public policy. 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., M3AAWG is 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 (U.S. Pacific), LMarcus@astra.cc, Astra Communications

M3AAWG Board of Directors: AT&T (NYSE: T); CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL); Cloudmark, Inc.; Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA); Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT); Cox Communications; Damballa, Inc.; Facebook; Google; LinkedIn; Mailchimp; Orange (NYSE: ORAN) and (Euronext: ORA); Return Path; Time Warner Cable; Verizon Communications; and Yahoo! Inc.

M3AAWG Full Members: 1&1 Internet AG; Adobe Systems Inc.; AOL; Campaign Monitor Pty.; Cisco Systems, Inc.; CloudFlare; dotmailer; Dyn; ExactTarget, Inc.; IBM; iContact; Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ, NASDAQ: IIJI); Listrak; Litmus; McAfee Inc.; Microsoft Corp.; Mimecast; Nominum, Inc.; Oracle Marketing Cloud; OVH; PayPal; Proofpoint; Rackspace; Spamhaus; Sprint; Symantec and Twitter.

A complete member list is available at /about/roster.

M³AAWG 34th General Meeting - Dublin, Ireland, June 9, 2015 – Operation Safety-Net, available today, is a cooperative global effort by industry and government experts outlining the online threats currently facing the world along with the proven best practices to mitigate them. The report was jointly developed by the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M³AAWG) and the London Action Plan (LAP), and describes the latest recommendations to protect users and networks from illicit Internet, mobile and telephony attacks.

“This tool doesn’t just describe today’s threats.  It also provides straightforward recommended best practices for governments, businesses, educators and other members of the Internet and mobile industry to join in the fight against these threats. The report, an easy-to-read synopsis of the current risk environment, was a global collaborative effort from the front line community that fights spam, malware, phishing, hacking and related hazards,” said Manon Bombardier, a LAP secretariat member and Chief Compliance and Enforcement Officer at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (www.crtc.gc.ca).

The international community collaboratively developed the report in a public-private partnership led by Andre Leduc, Industry Canada manager of the National Anti-spam Coordinating Body.  Industry experts from M3AAWG, LAP and other organizations, such as CAUCE (Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email) and the APWG (Anti-Phishing Working Group), also contributed.

Written in plain language, Operation Safety-Net focuses on five areas and their related best practices.  Some examples of the proven industry practices to combat these threats include:

1.    Malware and Botnets

• Among the most serious threats to the Internet economy, malware and bots can alter their characteristics so that even anti-abuse experts are not able to detect them.  
• Following industry best practices, the report encourages Internet Service Providers to notify customers of bots on their systems and also recommends the blocking of port 25.

2.    Phishing and Social Engineering

• Phishing schemes are going after increasingly more valuable data and high-value targets.
• Among the industry best practices to curtain fraud from phishing, the report recommends prompt breach reporting.

3.    Internet Protocol and Domain Name System (DNS) Exploits

• The worse DNS exploits involve bad actors redirecting Internet traffic to fake versions of popular websites.
• The report supports the worldwide deployment of DNSSEC (DNS Security) and recommends keeping DNS software updated.

4.    Mobile, Voice over IP (VoIP) and Telephony Threats

• Robocall scams are becoming more severe and new technology is also contributing to a growing number of Telephony Denial of Service (TDoS) attacks.
• The report recommends the development of international threat information exchanges and developing facilities to report these newly emerging schemes.

5.    Hosting and Cloud Threats

• Online and mobile threats exploiting hosting and cloud services include spam, spamvertising, phishing, hacked websites, DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) and other attacks.
• The report suggests possibly implementing hardware-based intrusion detection systems (IDS) and software-based security scans and firewalls.

M³AAWG Chairman Michael Adkins said, “Operation Safety-Net isn’t just for network or operational professionals.  It aggregates the anti-abuse industry’s global experience in identifying and curtailing current threats to help non-technical executives understand and manage online risk in their organizations.”     

Operation Safety-Net updates the initial “Best Practices to Address Online and Mobile Threats” report issued jointly by M³AAWG and LAP in 2012 to the OECD (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).  The new report released today has been rewritten to provide more depth on threats resulting from converging technologies, the development of new mobile attack vectors, and rapidly mutating malware.  For example, Operation Safety-Net addresses nefarious activities such as hijacked cloud and hosting services, VoIP “swatting” attacks that can disable emergency services switchboards, and new techniques for inserting spyware onto computers and mobile devices.

John Levine, president of CAUCE, said,  “We are particularly delighted to see that the groundbreaking work accomplished in the 2012 version of this report has not been allowed to languish, given the worldwide and positive acceptance of the initial document. The global anti-abuse community coming together and creating an opportunity to review, refresh and renew this important toolkit is a remarkable milestone.”

Operation Safety-Net is available on the websites of several organizations including in the Best Practices section of the M3AAWG website at /Operation_Safety-Net and on the LAP website at http://www.londonactionplan.org/reports-stats.

About the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M³AAWG)
 
The Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M³AAWG) is where the industry comes together to work against bots, malware, spam, viruses, denial-of-service attacks and other online exploitation. M³AAWG (www.m3aawg.org) represents more than one billion mailboxes from some of the largest network operators worldwide. It leverages the depth and experience of its global membership to tackle abuse on existing networks and new emerging services through technology, collaboration and public policy. 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., M3AAWG is driven by market needs and supported by major network operators and messaging providers.

About the London Action Plan (LAP)

The LAP (www.londonactionplan.org) is a 45-member organization drawn from governments, law enforcement agencies, academia and industry, and includes participants from Asia, Africa, North America and Europe that focus on fighting spam and online threats to consumers. The LAP promotes international enforcement cooperation and addresses spam related problems, such as online fraud and deception, phishing, and dissemination of viruses and has expanded its mandate to include additional threats, including malware, SMS spam and Do-Not-Call. The LAP coordinates joint enforcement activities, and enhances the technical skills of its members through regular teleconferences and an annual meeting.

Media Contact: Linda Marcus, APR, +1-714-974-6356 (U.S. Pacific), LMarcus@astra.cc, Astra Communications

M³AAWG Board of Directors: AT&T (NYSE: T); CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL); Cloudmark, Inc.; Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA); Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT); Cox Communications; Damballa, Inc.; Facebook; Google; LinkedIn; Listrak; Mailchimp; Message Systems; Orange (NYSE and Euronext: ORA);  OVH; PayPal; Return Path; Time Warner Cable; Verizon Communications; and Yahoo! Inc.

M³AAWG Full Members: 1&1 Internet AG; Adobe Systems Inc.; AOL; Campaign Monitor Pty.; Cisco Systems, Inc.; CloudFlare; Dyn; iContact/Vocus; Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ, NASDAQ: IIJI); Litmus; McAfee Inc.; Microsoft Corp.; Mimecast; Nominum, Inc.; Oracle Marketing Cloud; Proofpoint; Rackspace; Spamhaus; Sprint; Symantec and Twitter.

A complete member list is available at /about/roster.

San Francisco, April 22, 2014 – Tackling security concerns with hosting and cloud storage, pervasive monitoring, identity management, and telephony, the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group has announced the formation of four new collaborative special interest groups along with its organizational leadership for 2014.  The new SIGs provide a trusted venue for industry participation on critical issues while M³AAWG continues to support the ongoing work in its core security tracts.

Protecting end-users has become increasingly complex, requiring broad industry cooperation across multiple disciplines. The new M³AAWG Hosting SIG is also working with the i2Coalition and other industry partners to develop best practices.  The SIG will address issues with cloud storage security, identifying and removing illegitimate accounts, and protecting hosting servers against DDoS and other attacks.  The new M³AAWG Pervasive Monitoring SIG was formed in response to members’ concerns related to recent disclosures about extensive governmental monitoring of the Internet and how the consequent reaction by the technical community may impact, or even reduce, the ability to mitigate online abuse.

Earlier this year, the M³AAWG Voice and Telephony Abuse SIG hosted 90 technical experts, academic researchers, public policy advisors and representatives from government and law enforcement at a two-day workshop addressing robocalls and other voice abuse problems. A second VTA SIG workshop on June 18-19 in Montreal is also open to non-members, and European industry and government representatives will attend a briefing and cooperative data exchange at the M³AAWG 31^st General Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on June 9-12.

“Sharing timely information about attack vectors, vulnerabilities and proven security methods is crucial to protecting the Internet and providing end-users an accessible and safe online experience.  The collaborative work that will come out of these new SIGs will help fix urgent security issues and will augment the ongoing projects in our other M³AAWG committees to define the latest anti-abuse techniques,” said Chris Roosenraad, who is with Time Warner Cable and serving his third term as M³AAWG chairman.

2014 Leadership Look to Share Best Practices and Training

M³AAWG also announced the other 2014 Board officers serving with M³AAWG Chairman Roosenraad as M³AAWG co-vice chairmen Michael Adkins, Alex Bobotek of AT&T and Jerome Cudelou of Orange.  Sam Silberman of Constant Contact is treasurer and Jerry Upton continues as M³AAWG executive director.

The committees are supported in their work by M³AAWG Senior Technical Advisors, who are recognized industry experts with in depth knowledge in relevant fields.  The current advisors were all reappointed for 2014 and include Richard Clayton, Ph.D.; Dave Crocker; David Dagon, Ph.D.; John Levine, Ph.D.; April Lorenzen; and Joe St Sauver, Ph.D.

M³AAWG committees develop the organization’s best practices and other work that fight abuse and malware.  The 2014 committee chairs are:

• Academic Committee Co-Chairs Manos Antonakakis, Ph.D., Georgia Tech; and M³AAWG advisor Joe St Sauver, Ph.D.
• Awards Committee Co-Chairs Tami Forman, Return Path; and Neil Schwartzman, CAUCE
• Brand SIG Co-Chairs Mike Hammer, AG Interactive; and Franck Martin, LinkedIn
• Collaboration Committee Co-Chairs Christine Borgia, Return Path; Angela Knox, Cloudmark; and Sara Roper, CenturyLink
• Hosting SIG Co-Chairs M³AAWG Chairman Emeritus Michael O’Reirdan, Comcast; and Schwartzman
• Identity Management SIG Co-Chairs O’Reirdan and St Sauver
• M³AAWG Open Round Tables co-chairs Melinda Plemel, Return Path; and Jordan Rosenwald, Comcast
• Pervasive Monitoring SIG with co-chairs O'Reirdan and M³AAWG co-vice chairman Adkins
• Program Committee Co-Chairs Kurt Andersen, LinkedIn; Dennis Dayman, Oracle/Eloqua; and Len Shneyder
• Public Policy Committee Co-Chairs Frank Ackermann; Chris Boyer, AT&T; and Rudy Brioche, Comcast
• Senders Committee Co-Chairs Andrew Barrett, iContact, a Vocus company; and Tara Natanson, Constant Contact
• Technical Committee Co-Chairs Henry Stern, Farsight Security; and Jamie Tomasello, CloudFlare.  For specific work areas, Chris Barton, and Severin Walker, Comcast, are co-chairs for messaging; Paul Ferguson, Internet Identity; and Maxim Weinstein, Sophos, are co-chairs for malware; M³AAWG Co-Chairman Bobotek and Antti Tikkanen, F-Secure, are mobile co-chairs
• Training Committee Co-Chairs Sam Masiello, Groupon; Vincent Schönau, Abusix; and Autum Tyr-Salvia, Marketo
• Voice and Telephony Abuse SIG Co-Chairs Bobotek and Mustaque Ahamad, Ph.D., Georgia Tech

Beyond driving discussions on relevant issues, the committee chairs also help shape the organization’s three meetings each year.  The M³AAWG 31^st General Meeting in Brussels will be a multi-track event with a full day of training.  Industry experts will lead over 30 sessions on mobile security, technical discussions on pervasive monitoring, international public policy and other anti-abuse areas.

About the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M³AAWG)

The Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M³AAWG) is where the industry comes together to work against bots, malware, spam, viruses, denial-of-service attacks and other online exploitation. M³AAWG (www.M3AAWG.org) represents more than one billion mailboxes from some of the largest network operators worldwide. It leverages the depth and experience of its global membership to tackle abuse on existing networks and new emerging services through technology, collaboration and public policy. 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., M³AAWG is 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 (U.S. Pacific), LMarcus@astra.cc, Astra Communications

M³AAWG Board of Directors: AT&T (NYSE: T); CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL); Cloudmark, Inc.; Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA); Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT); Cox Communications; Damballa, Inc.; Facebook; Google; LinkedIn; Mailchimp; Orange (NYSE and Euronext: ORA); PayPal; Return Path; Time Warner Cable; Verizon Communications; and Yahoo! Inc.

M³AAWG Full Members: 1&1 Internet AG; Adobe Systems Inc.; AOL; BAE Systems Detica; Cablevision Systems Inc.; Campaign Monitor Pty.; Cisco Systems, Inc.; CloudFlare; Dynamic Network Services Inc.; iContact; Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ, NASDAQ: IIJI); Litmus; McAfee Inc.; Message Bus; Mimecast; Nominum, Inc.; Oracle/Eloqua; Proofpoint; Scality; Spamhaus; Sprint; Symantec and Twitter.

A complete member list is available at /about/roster.