Mobile

San Francisco, July 18, 2012 – Seeking to throw a little light on those making the Internet a safer experience for all, the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group is now accepting nominations for the first annual J.D. Falk Award, named after the dedicated industry advocate who was instrumental in the growth of M³AAWG and other technical organizations.  The award, developed in conjunction with his employer Return Path, Inc. and his family, celebrates J.D. Falk’s life by honoring a specific achievement that enhances the Internet experience, protects end-users, and embodies his spirit of volunteerism and community building.

Nominees can be individuals or teams in an academic or company environment who have developed a service, created a specification or security mechanism, generated notable research, or produced other work reducing online abuse and improving the Internet.  The award comes with an honorarium provided by Return Path and M³AAWG will sponsor the winning candidate's attendance at the upcoming 26^th M³AAWG General Meeting in Baltimore, Md., Oct. 23-25, where the award will be presented.  

“J.D. was a passionate leader and a creative technician who had an ardent sense of humor that came into play when he was facing down obstacles. He had a gift for bringing people together to accomplish difficult tasks. We believe it’s important to instill these qualities in the future of the Internet and are looking to recognize professionals who embody these values,” said Chris Roosenraad, M³AAWG co-chairman for messaging.

Falk chaired several M³AAWG committees, served on its Board of Directors, and was the organization’s document editor. He also was responsible for the feedback loop RFC 6449 and other IETF documents, was a founding director of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE) and active in other organizations.  At Return Path, a company that provides email data intelligence to reduce spam, Falk was the director of Internet standards and governance.

“The integrity and insight that J.D. brought to Return Path continues to shape our culture and guide our mission. It’s an honor to be able to celebrate his legacy and support progress toward his vision of a more secure online world,” said Matt Blumberg, CEO and chairman of Return Path.

Nominations for the J.D. Falk Award must be submitted by Sept. 6, 2012 at /events/jd-falk-award or from the award link in the Program tab on the M³AAWG site.  While the J.D. Falk Award recognizes a specific accomplishment, the M³AAWG Mary Litynsky Award – also presented annually by the organization – honors lifetime achievement. 

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 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

M³AAWG Board of Directors: AT&T (NYSE: T); Cloudmark, Inc.; Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA); Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT); Cox Communications; Damballa, Inc.; Eloqua; Facebook; France Telecom (NYSE and Euronext: FTE); La Caixa; Message Bus; PayPal; Return Path; Time Warner Cable; Verizon Communications; and Yahoo! Inc.

M³AAWG Full Members: 1&1 Internet AG; Adaptive Mobile Security LTD; Adobe Systems Inc.; AOL; BAE Systems Detica; Cisco Systems, Inc.; Dynamic Network Services Inc.; Email Sender and Provider Coalition; Experian CheetahMail; Genius.com; iContact; Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ NASDAQ: IIJI); MailUp; McAfee Inc.; Message Systems; Mimecast; Proofpoint (everyone.net); Scality; Spamhaus; Sprint; Symantec; and Trend Micro, Inc.

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

San Francisco, February 14, 2012 – The online industry generally acknowledges that viruses and malicious code are spread through spam, yet it seems that malware and messaging security professionals rarely collaborate on threats despite the commonality of their work. The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group is pushing the industry to move beyond this “silo” mentality to better protect end-users. It has changed its name to M3AAWG – also known as M3 for Messaging, Malware and Mobile – and is bolstering its internal structure to address the dangerous connection between malware, spam and abuse on emerging mobile platforms.

“A quick online search produces more than 14 million links to references connecting messaging and malware, but in reality abuse professionals in these fields usually work autonomously. This isolation keeps companies in the dark and bestows a ‘divide and conquer’ advantage to the cybercriminals. M3 is the path forward because cooperative efforts among all these experts – messaging abuse, malware and mobile security professionals – is the only way to win this war,” said M3AAWG Chairman Michael O’Reirdan.

As it has since its inception in 2004, M3AAWG will continue to tackle abuse on any messaging platform, from email to texting. But spam is just the symptom and the organization has evolved into a forum for sharing information and techniques to combat malware, the real pathology. While mobile has also played an important role in the organization’s current work, M3AAWG is intensifying its focus on this platform, both internally and through association with other industry groups, before abuse reaches substantial levels and threatens users.

To accomplish these structural changes, M3 appointed experts to assist its working committees in identifying key issues and to champion solutions. As a result, the M3AAWG 24th General Meeting will feature panels on smartphone threats, discussions on how mobile platform abuse affects senders, current malware trends, and a report on following the malware money, among other sessions at the three-day, multi-track event in San Francisco on Feb. 20-23.

“The move to M3 is a wake-up call to the industry. We are extending our hands across the aisle to our colleagues in the malware and mobile fields. The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group is known as a place where the divergent needs and views of the global industry can come together to realize effective, real-world solutions to operational, technical and public policy questions,” O’Reirdan said.

About the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG)

The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG) is where the messaging industry comes together to work against spam, malware, 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 is the only organization addressing messaging abuse by systematically engaging all aspects of the problem, including technology, industry collaboration and public policy. M3AAWG leverages the depth and experience of its global membership to tackle abuse on existing networks and new emerging services, including mobile. 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.

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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); Constant Contact (CTCT); Cox Communications; Damballa, Inc.; Eloqua; Facebook; France Telecom (NYSE and Euronext: FTE); La Caixa; Message Bus; PayPal; Return Path; Time Warner Cable; Verizon Communications; and Yahoo! Inc.

MAAWG Full Members: 1&1 Internet AG; Adaptive Mobile Security LTD; BAE Systems Detica; Cisco Systems, Inc.; Dynamic Network Services Inc.; Email Sender and Provider Coalition; Experian CheetahMail; Genius.com; iContact; Internet Initiative Japan, (IIJ NASDAQ: IIJI); MailUp; McAfee Inc.; Message Systems; Mimecast; MXTools; Proofpoint (everyone.net); Scality; Spamhaus; Sprint; Symantec; and Trend Micro, Inc.

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

San Francisco, Oct. 5, 2011 – A global summit of online security experts will convene in Paris at a joint MAAWG-LAP meeting featuring keynotes by important French government officials along with panels of international law enforcement agents, public policy advisors, technologists and academic researchers. Organized around the annual European meeting of the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group on Oct. 24-27, the multi-organizational gathering will be held in conjunction with the London Action Plan’s 7th Joint LAP-CNSA Workshop with the goal of enhancing private-public cooperation in the fight against spam, malware and other online threats.

“This is the perfect venue for top cybersecurity experts from around the world to share information and tackle the cutting-edge issues affecting online users. The dialogue generated at this meeting will improve our understanding of each others’ technical and policy concerns and allow us to work more closely in shutting down international cybercrime,” said Betsy Broder, LAP meeting chair and counsel for international consumer protection at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. LAP is a coalition of public and private entities from 27 countries cooperating on international online law enforcement.

A keynote panel during the four-day meeting will provide an update on cyber-protection efforts by the French government. The session will feature Eric Freyssinet, Head of the Cybercrime Division, French Police Force; Gilles Babinet, Président, Conseil National du Numérique (National Council of Digital Matters); and other senior officials.

A second keynote by Ethan Zuckerman, director of the MIT Center for Civic Media and co-founder of Global Voices – an organization that promotes citizen journalism – will address the challenges of balancing corporate legalities with human rights. Zuckerman also helped start Geekcorps, a nonprofit that sends technologists to teach online communications in developing countries.

More than 300 security professionals from Asia, Europe and North America are expected. Other joint sessions, which will include both LAP and the EU Contact Network of Spam Authorities, will focus on mobile security and enforcement, private-public cooperation, updates on the EU electronic communications framework, technical issues such as the IPv6 transition, and rapid domain takedowns.

MAAWG Chairman Michael O’Reirdan said, “With the variety of expertise in the participating organizations, we will be addressing a number of sensitive and important topics that will directly impact the online security community. Global cooperation is key to challenging malware and online threats.”

The 23rd MAAWG General Meeting opens Oct. 24 with a full-day of training with courses on spamtraps, malware analysis and a joint MAAWG/LAP/EU CNSA training session summarizing recent law enforcement actions against cybercriminals. MAAWG presentations over the week will cover the TDL4 bot and mobile bot takedowns, assisting users who have been infected with malware, IPv6 and rDNS, along with other topics and members-only document review and committee working sessions.

LAP and the EU CNSA will meet separately with the OCED’s Committee on Consumer Policy to discuss the 2006 spam enforcement cooperation recommendations. They will also explore synergies with the EU’s Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) network with a workshop on Oct. 27 at the UK Office of Fair Trade.

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 more than 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.

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

MAAWG Board of Directors: AT&T (NYSE: T); Cloudmark, Inc.; Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA); Cox Communications; Facebook; France Telecom (NYSE and Euronext: FTE); PayPal; Return Path; Time Warner Cable; Verizon Communications; and Yahoo! Inc.

MAAWG Full Members: 1&1 Internet AG; Adaptive Mobile Security LTD; Apple Inc.; Cisco Systems, Inc.; Constant Contact (CTCT); Dynamic Network Services Inc.; e-Dialog; Eloqua; Email Sender and Provider Coalition; Experian CheetahMail; Genius.com; iContact; Internet Initiative Japan, (IIJ NASDAQ: IIJI); McAfee Inc.; Message Systems; Mimecast; Nominum, Inc.; NWEB SRL; Proofpoint (everyone.net); Scality; Spamhaus; Sprint; Symantec; and Trend Micro, Inc.

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