Incoming State Attorneys General Association President McKenna and FTC Consumer Protection Director Vladeck to Address Online Protection at MAAWG

SAN FRANCISCO, January 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- Global Gathering Tackles Cybersecurity Policy, Technology, Mobile and Social Platforms

Rob McKenna, the incoming president of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG), and David Vladeck, head of the U.S. consumer protection bureau, will both keynote the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) meeting in February, which will focus on protecting consumers in an evolving cyber future. The four-day, multi-track event will explore the latest strategies to thwart spam and online threats in sessions organized around global public policy, technology updates, collaboration, industry training and best practices development.

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The 21st MAAWG meeting, Feb. 21-24 in Orlando, Fla., will bring together top messaging and security experts from around the world. Other speakers include US Internet Service Provider Association (USISPA) Executive Director Kate Dean on upcoming cybersecurity legislation and experts discussing European and Canadian legislation and public policy developments. Other panels will feature researchers on current botnet assessments and the latest spam metrics. Specialists will address social abuse, mobile anti-abuse techniques, IPv6, assisting phished users, authentication, and blocklists. MAAWG also will be working with network operators at the meeting to begin compiling the industry's first report of bot metrics generated directly from ISPs.

The meeting will open with several technical training sessions. Professional courses will cover mobile architecture and abuse scenarios, spam traps and honeypots, implementing DNSSec, and crimeware attribution.

On Feb. 22, McKenna, who is the incoming NAAG president and currently Washington state attorney general, will discuss his hands-on activities to protect consumers in cyberspace. He has received several awards for his online safety work, was named in 2008 as one of the most influential people in the security industry, and has been an Aspen Institute Rodel Fellow in Public Leadership since 2006.

Vladeck, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection of the Federal Trade Commission, will address MAAWG on Feb. 23. The bureau under Vladeck's management has aggressively targeted spammers and consumer cyber threats, and is also focusing on mobile and social media abuse.

MAAWG continues to grow in membership and breadth adding a third track of sessions on Tuesday to accommodate the demand to address evolving cybersecurity issues, according to MAAWG Chairman Michael O'Reirdan. MAAWG holds three meetings each year, including a European meeting that will be in Paris this October.

"With online messaging expanding into social media, mobile and other platforms, MAAWG members are working extremely hard to protect consumers. These meetings are a unique opportunity to collaborate with industry colleagues from around the world. International cooperation is the only way to address this international problem," O'Reirdan said.

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 (http://www.MAAWG.org) represents more than 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. It also works to educate global policy makers on the technical and operational issues related to online abuse and messaging. 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); Bank of America; Cloudmark, Inc.; Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA); Cox Communications; Eloqua; France Telecom (NYSE and Euronext: FTE); Goodmail Systems; Openwave Systems (NASDAQ: OPWV); PayPal; Return Path, Inc.; Time Warner Cable; Verizon Communications; and Yahoo! Inc.

MAAWG Full Members: 1&1 Internet AG; Antevenio; Apple Inc.; Cisco Systems, Inc.; Constant Contact (CTCT); e-Dialog; Edatis; Email Sender and Provider Coalition; Experian CheetahMail; Genius.com; Internet Initiative Japan, (IIJ NASDAQ: IIJI); McAfee Inc.; Scality; Spamhaus; Sprint; Symantec; Trend Micro, Inc.; YouSendIt; and Zynga, Inc.

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