San Francisco, October 15, 2009  – Promoting global cooperation against spam and other online abuse, the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) will focus on critical technical and public policy issues at its fall meeting, including bot mitigation, Web messaging abuse, and mobile spam among other topics. U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. David B. Warner will keynote the three-day event, outlining the government’s new military cyber security defense initiative, and several invited Internet organizations will join the meeting as MAAWG works to forge closer ties among industry, government and public policy agencies.

The MAAWG 17th General Meeting will be held in Philadelphia on Oct. 26-28 with professional development training courses on Oct. 29. The event will provide an opportunity for messaging professionals to share methodologies and ideas for curtailing online abuse.

Warner will discuss how the Air Force Space Command (AFSC), as the lead Air Force authority for cyberspace resources, is organizing, training and equipping the military’s cyber security defense efforts and its potential for future relationships with private industry. The general is director of communications and information and chief information officer at Headquarters AFSC, and is responsible for integrating cyber security defense policies, architecture and capabilities.

Technical and public policy working sessions will address domain registrar anti-abuse tactics, DNS management, and senders’ data exchange and customer service issues. A mobile messaging update will include an overview of the proposed mobile spam act S.788 by a U.S. Senate legislative aid, and there will be invitation-only sessions for ISPs to discuss anti-abuse techniques.

The meeting also will feature panels with representatives of other Internet security and anti-abuse organizations focusing on how the industry can best apply the special skills of each group. Invited organizations include:

• The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG)
• The Anti-Spyware Coalition (ASC)
• Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
• U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
• Kids Come First (FIRST Online)
• National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)
• The Shadowserver Foundation, an organization that gathers cybercrime intelligence
• Researchers and experts from academic institutions

On Oct. 29, a two-hour training class covering the open source protocol analyzer Wireshark will provide a basic overview of TCP/IP, capture techniques, and filters with a detailed analysis of a spammer SMTP transaction. A second professional development class will offer tips on business and media communications.

Meeting details and registration are 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 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 Sponsors (Board of Directors): AOL; AT&T (NYSE: T); Cloudmark, Inc.; Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA); Cox Communications; France Telecom (NYSE and Euronext: FTE); Goodmail Systems; Openwave Systems (NASDAQ: OPWV); Time Warner Cable; Verizon Communications; and Yahoo! Inc.

MAAWG European members: 1&1 Internet AG; Bizanga LTD; Cisco Systems, Inc.; Constant Contact (CTCT); e-Dialog; Eloqua Corporation; Experian CheetahMail; Genius.com; Internet Initiative Japan, (IIJ NASDAQ: IIJI); McAfee Inc.; NeuStar, Inc.; Return Path, Inc.; Spamhaus; Sprint; and Symantec