News Release
For Immediate Release
MAAWG Issues Second Spam Report
Doubling Inbox Coverage
Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group to Address Spam, Fraud
with Anti-Phishing WG at General Meeting
San Francisco, June 13, 2006 – The second quarterly report tracking the industry’s ongoing efforts to stop spam before it reaches users’ inboxes indicates that Internet Service Providers continued to block or tag four abusive emails for every message that was delivered. MAAWG (Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group) has more than doubled its sample base in the voluntary reporting program to include over 370 million mailboxes, covering a substantial share of consumer inboxes on a global scale.
“MAAWG Email Metrics Program: The Network Operators’ Perspective, Report #2” will be the focus of a public policy session at the MAAWG 7th General Meeting in Brussels, Belgium on June 27-29. The meeting will be co-located with the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) and is open to the industry. The two trade associations are organizing a number of joint sessions on eliminating fraud over the Internet along with agendas specific to each organization.
Opportunity for Industry to Work Against Abuse
The MAAWG 7th General Meeting will provide an opportunity for network operators and vendors to learn from peers about trends and the most effective processes for combating spam and other abuse problems. Presentations are open to the industry on operational issues such as sharing traffic data to identify abuse, an update on domain reputation, the best abuse desk processes, emerging threats and anti-phishing best practices.
The MAAWG public policy sessions will focus on regulatory models, legal compliance and measurement. The sessions will include a report from a region where the volume of spam is declining, a survey of pending European legislation and privacy concerns, and a look at self-regulation and legislative controls, among other topics.
A few of the MAAWG sessions are open only to members. These meetings provide an opportunity for service providers and vendors to exchange the confidential information necessary to reduce online threats. Details on both the public and private sessions and registration information are available at www.MAAWG.org.
Second Metrics Report Doubles Program Base
The second report in the MAAWG Email Metrics Program will be the focus of a session at the meeting. Showing support for the program that was launched in March 2006, a number of additional MAAWG network operators and Internet Service Providers have joined the voluntary program, doubling the number of inboxes represented. The second report also includes updated statistics for the last quarter of 2005 from these operators to maintain the accuracy of the program. The complete Email Metrics Report #2 is also available on the MAAWG Web site at www.MAAWG.org.
MAAWG is the largest global trade association focusing on email abuse and its metrics program compiles confidential data from its participating Internet Service Provider and network operator members. It provides an unbiased look at the industry’s efforts in obstructing abusive emails and an understanding of the scope of the problem.
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) is the only organization addressing messaging abuse holistically by systematically engaging all aspects of the problem, including technology, industry collaboration and public policy. It 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): America Online; Bell Canada; BellSouth (NYSE: BLS); Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR); Cingular Wireless (NYSE:, SBC); Cloudmark; Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA); Cox Communications (NYSE: COX); EarthLink (NASDAQ: ELNK); France Telecom; Goodmail Systems; Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT); Openwave Systems (NASDAQ: OPWV); Verizon Communications; and Yahoo! Inc.
MAAWG Full Members: Bizanga LTD; Cablevision; Cisco Systems, Inc.; Internet Initiative Japan, (IIJ NASDAQ: IIJI); IronPort Systems; MX Logic; O2; Sprint; Sun Microsystems, Inc.; and Symantec
A complete member list is available at http://www.maawg.org/about/roster.