SAN FRANCISCO, March 13 /PRNewswire/ -- The global organization of network operators and vendors working to protect users' inboxes from abusive email, the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG), has announced its new 2007 leadership and plans for a general meeting in Dublin, Ireland in June. From AOL, Charles Stiles was elected MAAWG Chairperson, with Michael O'Reirdan from Comcast and Jonathan Curtis from Bell Canada as co-vice chairs.

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

The MAAWG 10th General Meeting, June 5-7 in Ireland, is open to members and invited industry guests, and will provide opportunities for dialogue among peers combined with presentations from technology and public policy experts. A session for Internet Service Providers and network operators also will be part of the three-day working meeting.

The organization's officers for 2007 were elected at a MAAWG meeting held late January in San Francisco. The event was attended by over 300 company, industry and governmental representatives, and resulted in progress on several initiatives to help the industry reduce online abuse. Committee sessions at the meeting furthered the organization's work on developing best practices for volume email senders, a common abuse reporting format for Internet service operators, and a protected MAAWG contact database for resolving reputation and network issues among members, according to Jerry Upton, MAAWG executive director.

The MAAWG leadership for the upcoming year represents the global membership and variety of industry vendors that participate in the organization:

     - Serving with the other officers, Laurie Jill Wood, Charter
       Communications, is treasurer overseeing the finances of the rapidly
       expanding organization that grew over 60 percent last year.

     - European Internet provider 1&1 Internet AG was elected to the Board of
       Directors, representing full-members.

     - The co-chairs of the new Program Committee are J.D. Falk of Yahoo! Inc.
       and Craig Spiezle of Microsoft Corp. George Bilbrey, Return Path, Inc.,
       and John Feaver, AT&T are chairs of the Collaboration Committee;
       Luc Mathan of France Telecom Group and Suzanne Morin of Bell Canada are
       Public Policy Committee co-chairs. Sam Silberman, Openwave Systems, and
       Rich Groves, Time Warner Cable, are chairs of the Technical Committee.
       The Anti-Phishing SIG co-chairs remain Daniel Dreymann, Goodmail
       Systems, and Vipul Ved Pradash, Cloudmark, Inc.  The Botnet/Zombie
       Subcommittee co-chairs are Scott Chasin of MXLogic and David Dagon with
       Georgia Tech University. The Sender Subcommittee co-chairs are Dennis
       Daymann, Strongmail Systems, Inc., and Ben Isaacson, CheetahMail, an
       Experian company.

     - The 2007 MAAWG Board is comprised of representatives from AOL,
       Bell Canada, Bell South, Charter Communications, Cloudmark, Comcast,
       Cox Communications, EarthLink, France Telecom Group, Goodmail Systems,
       Microsoft, Openwave Systems, Time Warner Cable, Verizon Communications
       and Yahoo!

Information on MAAWG and the upcoming members' general meeting 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) 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.

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

MAAWG Sponsors (Board of Directors): AOL; Bell Canada; BellSouth BLS; Charter Communications CHTR; Cloudmark, Inc.; Comcast CMCSA; Cox Communications (NYSE:COX); EarthLink ELNK; France Telecom Group FTE FTE; Goodmail Systems; Microsoft Corp. MSFT; Openwave Systems OPWV; Time Warner Cable, Verizon Communications; and Yahoo! Inc.

MAAWG Full Members: 1&1 Internet AG; A T & T; Bizanga LTD; Internet Initiative Japan, IIJI; IronPort Systems; MX Logic; O2; Outblaze LTD; Return Path, Inc.; Rogers Cable; Sprint; Sun Microsystems, Inc.; Symantec; Telus; and Trend Micro, Inc.

MAAWG Supporters: AcquireWeb, Inc.; Adknowledge, Inc.; Aladdin Knowledge Systems; Alt-N Technologies, Ltd.; Bluehornet Networks, Inc.; BigHip; BoxSentry PTE Ltd.; CheetahMail, an Experian Co.; Cincinnati Bell; ColdSpark, Inc.; Commtouch Software LTD; Constant Contact; Critical Path, Inc.; Datran Media; e-Dialog; EastLink; eleven GmbH; EmailLabs; ECO; Epsilon; Everyone.net, Inc.; ExactTarget, Inc.; F-Secure Corp.; Habeas Inc.; Informz; Insender Technologies Inc.; Lashback, LLC; Mansell Group, Inc.; Merkle/Quris; Message Level, LLC; Message Systems; Messagelabs; Messaging Architects; Mirapoint Inc.; MTS Allstream Inc.; Netsuite, Inc.; Nextel Communications; NTL Group Ltd.; PayPal, an eBay Company; Perftech, Inc.; Pivotal Veracity; Premiere Global Services; RSA Security Inc.; Responsys, Inc.; RPost; Salesforce.com; Sandvine Incorp.; Sendmail, Inc.; Simplicita Software, Inc.; SMobile Systems; Sophos Plc.; St. Bernard Software; StreamShield Networks; StrongMail Systems, Inc.; Swisscom Fixnet, AG LTD; TDC; TDS Telecom; Team Cymru; ThinData; Travelocity.com LP; Trend Micro, Inc.; TRUSTe; Tucows Inc.; Verisign Inc.; VistaPrint; Word To The Wise; Yesmail and ZDirect, Inc.

Source: Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group