In October, M3AAWG hosted its 53rd general meeting, where members convened virtually to address trends, technologies, issues and challenges related to messaging, mobile platforms and cybersecurity. 

A keynote from Ron Diebert, Citizen Lab, gave members a fascinating inside view of the lab’s work to uncover and track spyware used by nation-states and others. M3AAWG also honored Eve Galperin and Tara Hairston with its J.D. Falk Award for their work with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)  Coalition Against Stalkerware, which has created awareness and advocacy of stalkerware often linked to domestic and other abuse. 

Sessions led by members and industry experts included dealing with calendar spam, handling email services as used by risky or abusive industries, using AI to mitigate DDOS attacks, issues related to WHOIS, attacks via nefarious emails and privacy and open tracking. Other sessions tackled information sharing for DDOS attacks and identifying and preventing JavaScript and Magecart attacks. 

Members also gathered in roundtables to discuss a variety of emerging topics  and how M3AAWG and its members might address them to protect the online experience. Those topics included M3AAWG priorities and focus areas, promoting two-factor authentication (2FA),

developing a consumer Info package on SMS abuse reporting, how to encourage adoption of RPKI to help stop abuse of Internet number resources and changes in ESP Compliance.

Short summaries of some sessions are available on the M3AAWG

YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/user/MAAWG.

M3AAWG currently is seeking proposals for its February 21-24, 2022 54th general meeting. The deadline is Dec. 15 and details are here, https://www.m3aawg.org/events/call-for-proposals.

Watch for additional summaries and takeaways from October’s meeting here.