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MAAWG Expands Efforts Worldwide -- European Summit Encourages Common Focus in the Fight Against Messaging Abuse -- SAN FRANCISCO, July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The fight against spam, viruses and other e-mail-borne threats accelerates as the MAAWG (Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group) Summit in Europe expands cooperation and common focus worldwide in addressing messaging abuse on the Internet. Representatives from nearly one hundred different industry groups, technology carriers and providers and government agencies joined forces in Dusseldorf from June 21-23 to discuss and compare practices, policies and experiences from around the world. Specific focus and attention was given to the creation and promotion of joint initiatives to leverage the efforts of the private and public sectors to efficiently and effectively combat messaging abuse across political and economic boundaries. Among other projects, MAAWG members are preparing a set of best practices -- recommendations based on real-world experiences -- to be used by any messaging carrier to improve its overall effectiveness in addressing messaging abuse. These best practices include: -- Restricting e-mail traffic to specifically authorized points of origin (Port 25 management) -- Increasing end user security by authenticating all outgoing e-mail (SMTP Authentication) -- Validation of sending e-mail addresses and systems To facilitate the adoption and implementation of these best practices, an organized effort is underway to create clear means of communication among carriers and industry watch groups in order to quickly identify zombies and correct compromised systems on their networks. "A close working relationship with public policy organizations is equally as important as the technology and operational initiatives that MAAWG is supporting to bring about significant change in the Industry," said Dale Malik of BellSouth, MAAWG public policy co-chair. "The recent announcements by the FTC and London Action Plan are in alignment with our best practices efforts and signify the type of cooperation that is needed to bring about change. We look forward to building greater relationships with organizations like the OECD, London Action Plan, FTC, ACA, JEAG, E-COAT and national ISP associations to strengthen everyone's efforts." About MAAWG The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) is an independent non- profit coalition of worldwide carriers and technology providers. MAAWG is dedicated to solving messaging abuse by working along three initiatives -- collaboration across operators, best practices technology, and providing an industry voice into public policy. For more information on MAAWG, please visit http://www.maawg.org/ Next MAAWG Meeting is in Montreal, Canada, Nov. 8, 9, 10. Please see web site for details. MAAWG Members include: -- Sponsors (Board of Directors) -- America Online -- Bell Canada -- BellSouth (NYSE:BLS) -- Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR) -- Cingular Wireless -- Cloudmark -- Cox Communications -- Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) -- EarthLink (NASDAQ:ELNK) -- France Telecom -- Goodmail Systems -- Openwave Systems (NASDAQ:OPWV) -- Swisscom Fixnet AG/Bluewin -- Verizon -- Yahoo! -- Full Members -- Cablevision -- Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ, Nasdaq: IIJI) -- IronPort -- MX Logic (Board of Directors) -- Sprint -- Symantec (Board of Directors) -- Verisign -- Cisco -- Supporters -- Bigfoot Interactive -- Bizanga LTD -- Checkfree Corporation -- Cincinnati Bell -- Fortinet Inc. -- Habeas Inc. -- Kelkea, Inc. -- NetVision LLC -- Nextel Communications -- Omniti Computer Consulting, Inc. -- Perftech, Inc. -- Pivotal Veracity -- Plala Networks, Inc. -- Return Path, Inc. -- Sendmail -- Singlefin -- Skylist, Inc. -- TDC -- TDS Telecom, TDS Metrocom -- Word To The Wise -- StrongMail -- DoubleClick -- MessageLabs -- Pivotal Veracity For Additional Information, please contact: For further information, contact: Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group 572B Ruger Street P.O. Box 29920 San Francisco, California 94129-0920 Telephone: 1-415-561-6277 Executive Director, Jerry Upton Swisscom Fixnet AG Bluewin Myriam Ziesack Public Relations Telefon +41 44 274 74 89 Fax +41 44 274 71 43 BellSouth Brent Fowler 1-404-829-8722 Openwave Systems Nicole Arena 1-650-346-4293 Comcast Jeanne Russo 1-215-981-8552 EarthLink Alexandra Trask 404-748-7267 direct America Online Nicholas Graham 703-265-1801 Sprint Charles M. Fleckenstein 913-794-2943 DATASOURCE: MAAWG CONTACT: Jerry Upton of Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group, +1-415-561- 6277, ; or Myriam Ziesack, Public Relations of Swisscom Fixnet AG, +41 44 274 74 89, ; or Brent Fowler of BellSouth, +1-404-829-8722, ; or Nicole Arena of Openwave Systems, +1-650-346-4293, ; or Jeanne Russo of Comcast, +1-215-981-8552, ; or Alexandra Trask of EarthLink, +1-404-748-7267, ; or Nicholas Graham of America Online, +1-703-265-1801; or Charles M. Fleckenstein of Sprint, +1-913-794-2943 Web site: http://www.maawg.org/

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