SAN FRANCISCO, October 29 /PRNewswire/ --

- Focus on Cooperative Efforts to Protect Users' Online Experience

Focusing on the urgent problems of identifying and removing botnets from
end-users systems and preventing other online exploitation, the Messaging
Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) initiated several new projects at its third
meeting of the year. The new work represents important steps forward in
cooperative industry efforts to protect end-users by addressing the safe
mitigation of botnets, ISP migration to IPv6, detection and reporting of
compromised hosts, Web messaging abuse and other outbound abuse. The progress
of these projects and other ongoing work will be reviewed at the 15th MAAWG
General Meeting on February 17-19 in San Francisco, Calif.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070124/CLW180LOGO )

"Botnet mitigation is exceedingly important in protecting end users from
abuse and in maintaining a trusted online environment. MAAWG is aggressively
responding to this rapidly growing threat," said Michael O'Reirdan, MAAWG
chairman.

"At the same time, we're also continuing our day-to-day block and tackle
work on authentication, feedback loops, abuse reporting and other topics.
They are all weapons in our armory," O'Reirdan said.

"Bots" and "zombies" are computers infected with malicious code spread
via contaminated emails, instant messages or Web sites and installed without
the user's permission. The bots often are coordinated into covert networks
used to send spam, or "botnets" that can entail hundreds of thousands of
unsuspecting computers. Users with polluted machines are generally unaware
their systems are sending the abusive email, and among other threats, the
malware might also capture users' sensitive information for use by identity
thieves.

The new and ongoing work to address botnets and other abuse issues from
the MAAWG meeting held Sept. 22-24 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. included the
formation of:

-- A botnet mitigation subcommittee that will develop best practices to
safely remove malware from unsuspecting users' computers

-- A subcommittee reviewing a novel method by which senders of solicited
bulk email can detect that individual subscribers may have been infected by
malware, and automatically report their suspicion to that subscriber's ISP

-- An IPv6 and botnets subcommittee researching how IPv6 will impact
botnet detection

-- A migrating to IPv6 subcommittee developing best practices for
upgrading a messaging infrastructure

-- New working groups formed to address security issues in Web messaging
and other outbound abuse

-- In addition, domain registrars are invited to comment on the current
Registrars best practices draft by contacting MAAWG through its Web site:
www.MAAWG.org

MAAWG is the largest industry organization uniting ISPs, mailbox
providers and vendors from around the world against online abuse. The
three-day, multi-track February meeting will feature panels, keynote speakers
and open discussions with public policy representatives on tackling the
increasing volumes of toxic abuse that endanger users and the industry.
Information on the meeting and on MAAWG is 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.

MAAWG Board of Directors: AOL; AT&T (NYSE: T); Bell Canada; Charter
Communications (Nasdaq: CHTR); Cloudmark, Inc.; Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA); Cox
Communications; France Telecom (NYSE and Euronext: FTE); Goodmail Systems;
Openwave Systems (Nasdaq: OPWV); Return Path, Inc. (Full-Member
representative to the Board); Time Warner Cable; Verizon Communications; and
Yahoo! Inc.

MAAWG Full Members: 1&1 Internet AG; AG Interactive; Bizanga LTD;
BlueTie, Inc.; Constant Contact; Eloqua Corporation; Experian CheetahMail;
Google, Inc.; Internet Initiative Japan, (IIJ Nasdaq: IIJI); IronPort
Systems; McAfee Inc.; MX Logic; Outblaze LTD; Return Path, Inc.; SPAMHAUS
(The Spamhaus Project); Sprint; Sun Microsystems, Inc.; Symantec; and
Telefonica SA.

A complete member list is available at http://www.maawg.org/about/roster.

Web site: http://www.maawg.org
              http://www.maawg.org/about/roster