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As a vital initiative supported by the M3AA Foundation (M3AAF), Brian Scriber, a member of M3AAWG’s Growth and Development Committee and Board of Directors, participated in the 2025 Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) & AfricaCERT Symposium last month in Mauritius. 

Scriber’s focus at the event was to help share practical guidance, engage directly with regional incident response teams, and support a train-the-trainers approach that empowers local experts to adapt and extend M3AAWG’s Best Common Practices to meet regional needs. M3AAWG’s participation in the event created an important opportunity to strengthen regional collaboration and advance global anti-abuse efforts. 

The 3-day event provided a unique opportunity to help pursue multiple goals at once:

• Spread awareness of M3AAWG’s Best Common Practices (BCPs) and other essential work emerging from our committees and special interest groups (SIGs).
• Answer face-to-face questions so attendees can better utilize M3AAWG resources and adapt them to fit the unique needs of their regions.
• Gather feedback on how future M3AAWG resources should be updated and amended based on regional concerns. 
• Galvanize relationships with anti-abuse and response teams in Africa and the Arab territories while strengthening awareness and participation in the African Anti-Abuse Working Group (AF-AAWG).
• Promote the crucial role of M3AAF and its worldwide reach.
• Provide a forum for Scriber to present: “Ransomware in Progress: What to Do Right Now: Ransomware Active Attack Course of Action.”

With many regional incident response teams on site, M3AAWG’s Ransomware Active Attack Response BCP document served as a recurring topic of conversation throughout the meeting.

“The Ransomware Active Attack Toolkits and many other Initiatives we are working on at M3AAWG help emergency response teams from African countries that converged at this conference. The CERT (Computer Emergency Response Teams) are often engaged when an enterprise undergoes a ransomware attack,” Scriber said. 

In Scriber’s view, M3AAWG’s presence at the meeting on behalf of M3AAF and AF-AAWG offered a crucial train-the-trainers opportunity for supporting these response teams and others in the region on the front lines of anti-abuse work. 

“Each region is going to face nuanced differences in both threats and how they address them; the base BCP training is great for us to use and communicate; many of the attendees will take this document and adapt it to their own region,” he said.

“You can't just publish something on the website and say, 'There, that's it, we’re done.' It really comes down to creating presentations, training modules, and sitting down to work with stakeholders worldwide,” he added. “You have to be out here listening to the concerns and evolving these documents accordingly.”

As part of the plenary sessions, Scriber presented  “Ransomware in Progress: What to Do Right Now: Ransomware Active Attack Course of Action.”

With several governments recently establishing entire cyber infrastructure defense pillars in their national defense frameworks, ransomware is a growing concern in Africa, as it is globally. In his talk, Scriber covered:

• The current threat landscape and today’s risks.
• What’s changed and what the threat actors are doing.
• Resources for enterprises to prevent ransomware and mitigate the impacts of being a victim.

Scriber’s presentation sparked considerable interest in the work of AF-AAWG, as many attendees felt inspired to join and participate in this regional initiative during follow-up conversations with him. Founded in 2020, AF-AAWG serves as the organizational umbrella for developing a community within the region to effectively exchange information about abuse.

The relationships built through global efforts, along with M3AAWG members making face-to-face connections at worldwide conferences, are critical for fighting abuse. It ensures that the resources M3AAWG develops are carefully communicated by experts in their fields, and that future work continues to drive lasting change for all.

“We have a responsibility, even an ethical drive, to make sure technology is used appropriately. When you see it being abused, it makes you more than upset, especially when you see ransomware attacks against hospitals and other vital organizations, putting people’s lives at risk,” Scriber said.

“When these anti-abuse teams have additional requests or learn something new, they’re more likely to reach out to someone they know. The relationships we build across the globe are some of the massive strengths of M3AAWG. We are building a network of anti-abuse professionals that will be extremely hard for threat actors to ignore,” Scriber added.

Make sure to keep up with the latest developments in M3AAWG’s resources by subscribing to the M3AAWG blog and social accounts, where announcements on new resources are regularly provided. 

We look forward to members joining us at our 66th General Meeting in San Diego, taking place from February 16–19, 2026, where new work will be identified, and new solutions to pressing challenges will be explored. 

Not yet a member? You can also learn more about M3AAWG membership here. 

By investing in education, regional engagement, and trusted relationships, the M3AA Foundation helps turn shared expertise into real-world action against online abuse. Its support enables global collaboration that drives lasting, meaningful change. Learn more about the M3AA Foundation’s mission and its role in strengthening the global anti-abuse ecosystem.