M3AAWG Announces 2013 Leadership for Fighting Malware and Mobile Abuse

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Mar 20, 2013) - Emphasizing the need for more cooperative cybersecurity efforts across platforms, the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group will continue with a diverse leadership structure for 2013. Alex Bobotek of AT&T and Chris Roosenraad of Time Warner Cable will continue as M³AAWG Co-Chairmen with Michael O'Reirdan of Comcast continuing as a Board member and M³AAWG Chairman Emeritus.

Michael Adkins will remain as vice chairman with M³AAWG Executive Director Jerry Upton serving as the Board secretary. Anthony Purcell was also re-elected treasurer during the February 21 Board elections held at the M³AAWG 27^th General Meeting in San Francisco.

Last year M³AAWG expanded from its original mission of fighting spam to a broader charter that includes the urgent problems of confronting malware and fighting abuse on mobile platforms. It works to protect end-users by sharing information across platforms, developing best practices and educating policy makers on relevant operational issues.

"Whether on a smartphone or a computer, malware can ravage users and cause extensive damage across networks. The best way to safeguard end-users today is to cut through the operational silos that have developed in the industry and leverage our cybersecurity knowledge across platforms and among diverse areas of expertise," Roosenraad said.

Both Bobotek and Roosenraad served as M³AAWG co-chairmen in 2012 and as co-vice chairmen for the two previous years, providing continuity as the organization evolves with the changing industry. Bobotek, AT&T Lead of Messaging Anti-Abuse Architecture and Strategy, will also continue as a co-chair of the Technical Committee where he has helped develop programs to fight mobile abuse for several years. Roosenraad, Time Warner Cable Director of Systems Engineering, previously was a co-chair of the Technical Committee and of the Program Committee.

M³AAWG Senior Technical Advisors Richard Clayton, Ph.D.; Dave Crocker; David Dagon, Ph.D.; John Levine, Ph.D.; April Lorenzen; and Joe St Sauver, Ph.D. were reappointed. The advisors are experts with in depth knowledge in specific areas and assist the committees in their work. The committees are responsible for developing best practices and other work to fight online abuse.

The committee chairs appointed by the Board for 2013 are:

• Academic Committee, which was recently formed to bring the latest research to M³AAWG members, Co-Chairs Manos Antonakakis, Ph.D., of Damballa and Joe St Sauver
  
  
• Awards Committee co-chaired by Purcell and Neil Schwartzman, CAUCE
  
  
• Brand SIG Co-Chairs Mike Hammer, AG Interactive; and Franck Martin, LinkedIn
  
  
• Collaboration Committee Co-Chairs Christine Borgia, Return Path; Angela Knox, Cloudmark; and Sara Roper, CenturyLink
  
  
• M³AAWG meeting Open Round Tables session chair Jordan Rosenwald, Comcast
  
  
• Program Committee Co-Chairs Dennis Dayman, Eloqua; Len Shneyder, Message Bus; and Jamie Tomasello, CloudFlare
  
  
• Public Policy Committee Co-Chairs Frank Ackermann, eco-Association of the German Internet Industry; Chris Boyer, AT&T; and Rudy Brioche, Comcast
  
  
• Senders SIG Co-Chairs Andrew Barrett of iContact and Tara Natanson of Constant Contact
  
  
• Technical Committee Co-Chairs Alex Bobotek; Chris Barton, Cloudmark; Paul Ferguson, Internet Identity; and Matthew Steele, Symantec
  
  
• Training Committee Co-Chairs Kurt Andersen, LinkedIn; and Sam Masiello, CAUCE
  
  

The committees also develop educational and information-sharing sessions on emerging issues for M³AAWG meetings held three times a year. The organization's annual European meeting will be held in Vienna, Austria, June 3-6, and will feature training courses and three multi-track days of speakers, confidential industry dialogue, public policy reports and working committee sessions.

About the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M³AAWG)

The Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M³AAWG) is where the industry comes together to work against bots, malware, spam, viruses, denial-of-service attacks and other online exploitation. M³AAWG (www.M3AAWG.org) represents more than one billion mailboxes from some of the largest network operators worldwide. It leverages the depth and experience of its global membership to tackle abuse on existing networks and new emerging services through technology, collaboration and public policy. 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., M³AAWG is driven by market needs and supported by major network operators and messaging providers.

M³AAWG Board of Directors: AT&T (NYSE: T); Cloudmark, Inc.; Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA); Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT); Cox Communications; Damballa; Eloqua; Facebook; France Telecom (NYSE and Euronext: FTE); Google; PayPal; Return Path; Symantec; Time Warner Cable; Verizon Communications; and Yahoo! Inc.

M³AAWG Full Members: 1&1 Internet AG; Adaptive Mobile Security LTD; Adobe Systems Inc.; AOL; BAE Systems Detica; Cisco Systems, Inc.; CloudFare; Dynamic Network Services Inc.; Email Sender and Provider Coalition; Experian CheetahMail; Genius; iContact; Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ NASDAQ: IIJI); Mailchimp; McAfee Inc.; Message Bus; Mimecast; Nominum, Inc.; Proofpoint; Scality; Spamhaus; Sprint; and Twitter.

A complete member list is available at http://www.m3aawg.org/about/roster.