Mobile

MAAWG Develops First Industry Best Practices for Protecting Web Messaging Consumers; Also Issues Practices for Email Complaint Feedback Loops and Evaluating Anti-Abuse Products for Email Operators

San Francisco, October 28, 2010 –The first industry best practices to help Web messaging and social networking operators protect users of their Web mail, direct messaging and SMS services from spam and other cyber attacks have been released by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG). MAAWG also published two other new best practices papers clarifying conventional email processes for incorporating consumer complaint feedback loops and to assist ISPs in evaluating anti-abuse tools.
 
The Web messaging best practices are a significant industry undertaking aimed at protecting consumers. As users migrate to social media and Web mail, cyber criminals are modifying their spam and malware distribution techniques to take advantage of these venues. Spammers use Web mail accounts to send bot-infected emails; they promote malicious websites in text added to article sharing and invite emails; and they send abusive direct messages to site users, among other illicit processes.
 
The MAAWG Best Common Practices for Mitigating Abuse of Web Messaging Systems provides recommendations that network and site engineers can use to identify abusive messaging and block spammers. Among the topics described in the paper are methods to: 
  • Monitor a site, including auditing user account metrics and possible abusive transactions
  • Tighten user interface security, such as requiring users to register before posting or sending messages
  • Requiring CAPTCHA verification, the distorted text users enter when registering or submitting content
  • Limiting how often users can access a Web service or how many messages can be sent
  • Applying the appropriate content filtering techniques
  • Developing effective abuse response messages
“While users are benefiting from innovative Web messaging services, cyber criminals just see another channel to steal sensitive consumer information or send spam loaded with viruses and bots. That’s why sharing information among the professional messaging community about what has been working to keep the spammers at bay is so important. The recommendations outlined in the MAAWG best practices are meant to preserve a safe online experience and protect users,” said Michael O’Reirdan, MAAWG chairman. 
 
Both the Web messaging and the other two new best practices are available at the MAAWG website at /published-documents. The 21st MAAWG General Meeting also will focus on protecting online users and will be held in Orlando, Florida, Feb. 22-24, 2011. Earlier this month, more than 350 messaging security and public policy experts attended the organization’s meeting in Washington, D.C., during a working event that included 35 panels, presentations and information sharing sessions.
 
Clarifying Best Practices for Providing and Using Email Complaint Feedback Loops
 
Addressing conventional email, another new MAAWG best practices paper focuses on a common mechanism used to identify and manage consumer complaints about unwanted messages. When users hit the “junk mail” or “spam” button in their inbox to identify an abusive message, a complaint notice is sent back to the service provider. These responses are channeled into a complaint feedback process used by network operators, mailbox providers, email vendors and bulk senders to improve spam filtering and help senders increase deliverability by adjusting their mailing practices. 
 
While many de facto standards for sharing this feedback have developed over the years, the MAAWG Complaint Feedback Loop Best Current Practices is the first document to clearly describe existing accepted procedures. It outlines the process and recommended policies, including privacy concerns, for both the mailbox providers who collect the data from their users and the bulk senders or vendors who receive the resulting complaint reports.
 
Evaluating Email Anti-Abuse Solutions
 
Also important to the industry, the MAAWG Email Anti-Abuse Product Evaluation Best Current Practices outlines how to conduct trial evaluations of email anti-abuse products or services. Aimed at email system operators and engineers, the paper offers suggestions on determining functional and business requirements for enterprise anti-abuse products, identifying key performance indicators, multiple product testing and analyzing the results.
 
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 overone 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, 714-974-6356, LMarcus@astra.cc, Astra Communications
 
MAAWG Board of Directors: AOL; AT&T (NYSE: T); Bank of America; Cloudmark, Inc.; Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA); Cox Communications; Facebook; France Telecom (NYSE and Euronext: FTE); Goodmail Systems; Openwave Systems (NASDAQ: OPWV); Return Path; 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; Eloqua; Experian CheetahMail; Genius.com; Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ NASDAQ: IIJI); McAfee Inc.; PayPal; Return Path, Inc.; Scality; Spamhaus; Sprint; Symantec; YouSendIt; and Zynga, Inc.
 
A complete member list is available at /about/roster.

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