SAN FRANCISCO, April 2 /PRNewswire/ --

- Also Takes on Botnet Mitigation, Mobile Spam, Public Policy Teamwork

Your good email habits have become an important tool to help inbox
providers and ISPs protect you and other customers from online fraud and
spam. A new white paper for IT professionals and volume email senders from
the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) demystifies the messaging
reputation technology now used by most large service providers to identify
abusive and errant emails as junk mail.

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

"MAAWG Message Sender Reputation Concepts and Common Practices" explains
how online behavior by a person or an organization can be used to calculate
the likelihood a message is spam. Combined with other technologies, it is a
powerful tool to improve email deliverability because it more precisely ties
accountability to the sender's identity rather than analyzing message
content, according to the paper's editor, Michael Adkins, co-chair of the
MAAWG technical committee and AOL senior systems programmer.

"Messaging reputation has evolved beyond the simple whitelist-blacklist
approach to provide a more sophisticated range of responses than just 'good
or bad.' As a result, fewer legitimate emails are tagged as junk while more
fraudulent and annoying spam messages are kept out of inboxes, and the
technology can also help service providers operate more efficiently," Adkins
said.

Just as a person's or company's behavior affects how they are perceived
in the community, messaging reputation is based on a calculated evaluation of
the identity's ongoing compliance with industry-accepted email practices. The
white paper provides an overview of a messaging reputation system's
assessment goals, models and algorithms. It was completed at the MAAWG 15th
General Meeting in February and released to the industry today on the
organization's Web site, www.MAAWG.org.

Security Needs Support Continued MAAWG Growth

The organization's 15th meeting in San Francisco was one of its largest
with 350 online security professionals from 10 countries and 130 companies
collaborating against botnets, spam and all forms of abusive messaging. The
30 sessions over four days included a keynote by Washington Post journalist
Brian Krebs sharing how his investigative reporting led to identifying
McColo-hosted botnets; talks by ICANN representatives and Knujon's Bob Bruen
on fighting domain abuse; and a session with FBI executives on finding and
prosecuting botnet masters. User advocate Jayne Hitchcock of HaltAbuse.org
spoke on educating customers.

Other strategic projects from the meeting will be addressed in MAAWG
committees over the next few months, including mobile spam reporting formats,
botnet mitigation practices, and feedback loops to help providers estimate
costs, among other issues. These and other topics will be featured at the
MAAWG 16th General Meeting, June 9-11 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

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.

Media Contact: Linda Marcus, APR, +1-714-974-6356, lmarcus@astra.cc, 
Astra Communications

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

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

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