MAAWG
Encyclopedia
The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) started as a group of internet service provider
s, mobile network operators, telecommunications companies and infrastructure vendors and anti-spam technology vendors in early 2004. It has since expanded to include e-mail service provider
s and other forms of senders, and other interested parties. The purpose of the group is to fight spam, phishing
, denial of service attacks, mobile spam and other forms of e-mail abuse. It is one of the largest global organizations working against all forms of messaging abuse as it represents over a billion mailboxes among its global membership.
MAAWG has three levels of membership:
As of August 2010, MAAWG Board of Directors includes 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.
The role of MAAWG is to bring various aspects of the industry together to discuss related messaging issues and, based on this cooperative effort, produce best practices, white papers and other materials that are available to the industry from the MAAWG website. It also provides an opportunity for professionals to share information on working against messaging abuse with their peers.
As of August 2010, MAAWG has publicly available fifteen papers and best practices on a variety of topics. Among these are best practices to help ISPs mitigate bots on consumers' computers, best practices for volume senders, a white paper on email authentication, and other issues facing the industry. The organization also has conducted two surveys looking at consumers' email practices: In 2009, it published a survey of North American users titled "Of Course I Never Click on Spam - Except Sometimes" and in 2010 expanded the survey to cover both North America and Europe.
MAAWG has made a detailed training video available to the industry on its website describing DKIM implementation. The course originally was presented at a MAAWG February 2010 meeting by industry experts Dave Crocker of Brandenburg InternetWorking and DKIM.org, and Murray Kucherawy of Cloudmark.
MAAWG holds three members-only meetings each year, two in North America and one in Europe. The meetings generally offer multi-track conference sessions focusing on technical, public policy and collaborative work along with topical training sessions. The meetings often are held in conjunction with other relevant organizations. In the past, MAAWG has hosted the GSM Association Security Group (GSMA-SG), the Anti-Phishing Working Group, and other associations at its meetings.
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
s, mobile network operators, telecommunications companies and infrastructure vendors and anti-spam technology vendors in early 2004. It has since expanded to include e-mail service provider
E-mail service provider
One type of email service provider is an organization which provides email servers to send, receive, and store email for other organizations and/or end users. Such an ESP may provide the service to the general public for personal email or it may provide the service only to its members One type...
s and other forms of senders, and other interested parties. The purpose of the group is to fight spam, phishing
Phishing
Phishing is a way of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT...
, denial of service attacks, mobile spam and other forms of e-mail abuse. It is one of the largest global organizations working against all forms of messaging abuse as it represents over a billion mailboxes among its global membership.
MAAWG has three levels of membership:
- Supporter, which is the least expensive and most popular level of membership
- Full, which has additional privileges such as the option to chair a committee
- Sponsor, which has a seat on the Board of Directors
As of August 2010, MAAWG Board of Directors includes 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.
The role of MAAWG is to bring various aspects of the industry together to discuss related messaging issues and, based on this cooperative effort, produce best practices, white papers and other materials that are available to the industry from the MAAWG website. It also provides an opportunity for professionals to share information on working against messaging abuse with their peers.
As of August 2010, MAAWG has publicly available fifteen papers and best practices on a variety of topics. Among these are best practices to help ISPs mitigate bots on consumers' computers, best practices for volume senders, a white paper on email authentication, and other issues facing the industry. The organization also has conducted two surveys looking at consumers' email practices: In 2009, it published a survey of North American users titled "Of Course I Never Click on Spam - Except Sometimes" and in 2010 expanded the survey to cover both North America and Europe.
MAAWG has made a detailed training video available to the industry on its website describing DKIM implementation. The course originally was presented at a MAAWG February 2010 meeting by industry experts Dave Crocker of Brandenburg InternetWorking and DKIM.org, and Murray Kucherawy of Cloudmark.
MAAWG holds three members-only meetings each year, two in North America and one in Europe. The meetings generally offer multi-track conference sessions focusing on technical, public policy and collaborative work along with topical training sessions. The meetings often are held in conjunction with other relevant organizations. In the past, MAAWG has hosted the GSM Association Security Group (GSMA-SG), the Anti-Phishing Working Group, and other associations at its meetings.
External links
- Official website
- event listing on upcoming.orgUpcoming.orgUpcoming is a social event calendar website that launched in 2003, founded by Andy Baio. On October 4, 2005, Upcoming.org was acquired by Yahoo!.- Features :...