Industry Experts Gather At MAAWG To 'Protect The End User'

PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- With the participation of some of the industry's largest ISPs, email providers and Internet companies, the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) is focusing on how to better protect the end user from spam, bots and other messaging exploitations during its February meeting in San Francisco. The three-day, multi-track event will feature experts from Google, Mozilla, Microsoft, all the major anti-virus vendors, social networking sites, and anti-spam researchers, among others.

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The first of three MAAWG meetings this year, the goal of the Feb. 16-18 event is to encourage a frank discussion and share innovative techniques to better safeguard consumers, according to Michael O'Reirdan, MAAWG chairman. MAAWG meetings are organized around a series of roundtables, expert presentations on groundbreaking work, and closed-door discussions on sensitive anti-spam issues.

Among the topics to be addressed at the meeting are:

# Web browser security # The future of desktop and device email clients # Domain registrar account security, such as problems that enabled the recent attack against a Chinese search engine # Authentication and DKIM # Wireless messaging abuse # Bulk-email senders practices # Initial results of the 2010 consumer email survey, expanded to cover both North America and Europe

The MAAWG ISP Closed Colloquium (ISPCC), held each day of the meeting, provides an opportunity for network operators to address confidential issues in private. This session will be opened to all meeting participants the last day of the event, providing a unique opportunity for dialogue among ISPs, bulk senders and vendors. Other MAAWG committee work will continue on best practices and white papers related to IPv6, port 53 issues, and feedback loops. Financial Times journalist Joseph Menn will share his research into DDOS espionage, the basis of his new book Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who are Bringing Down the Internet.

MAAWG meetings are open to members and invited experts only. Registration and meeting information is available at www.MAAWG.org.

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 industry forum driven by market needs and supported by major network operators and messaging providers.

Media Contact: Linda Marcus, APR, +1-714-974-6356, [email protected], 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.; NeuStar, Inc.; Return Path, Inc.; Spamhaus; Sprint; and Symantec

A complete member list is available at http://www.maawg.org/about/roster.