Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2Coalition) Joins M3AAWG to Reduce Hosting Industry Abuse, Will Fight Spam, Malware and Other Cloud and Hosting Threats

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Mar 16, 2016) - The Internet Infrastructure Coalition, i2Coalition, has joined the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group to continue work on developing best practices for hosting and cloud service companies and to share other information that will protect end-users. Members of the i2Coalition's new Internet Safety Working Group and its Abuse Reporting Discussion List will be participating in M³AAWG meetings and committee work as the two organizations collaborate on threats aimed at the Internet's infrastructure.

To encourage an exchange between the anti-abuse experts in M³AAWG and the hosting companies in the i2Coalition, M³AAWG will co-host a formal i2Coalition member meeting at its M³AAWG 37^th General Meeting in Philadelphia on June 13-16, 2016. The meeting will include both joint sessions with speakers on vital issues related to hosting abuse along with separate sessions focused on topics specific to each organization, according to Jerry Upton, M³AAWG executive director.

The i2Coalition works to encourage an open, safe and free Internet that drives innovation, economic growth and enhances the lives of people globally. It represents companies from the Internet infrastructure industry from around the world. Counted among the i2Coalition's members are hosting, domain name and cloud computing companies, among others.

"We are joining M³AAWG because spam, malware and other online threats can be significantly reduced by hosting companies following common hygiene and security guidelines," said Christian Dawson, i2Coalition executive director and founder.

"Hosting companies can implement some simple steps to protect end-users that do not require added resources or burden staff as outlined in the best practices our organizations jointly published last year. Because these processes can reduce exploits against end-users, they also can help reduce costly abuse desk and customer service operations. We will be working within M³AAWG to identify new online threats targeted to hosting and cloud service providers as they develop and to share this knowledge with our hosting operator members," Dawson continued.

The i2Coalition will work with the Hosting Committee and other groups within M³AAWG. The two organizations will expand on the 2015 M3AAWG Anti-Abuse Best Common Practices for Hosting and Cloud Service Providers along with other projects.

M³AAWG is also the first technical partner to join the i2Coalition. Aside from its membership option, the i2Coalition has created this program for formal technical partnerships to foster cooperative work with organizations that can jointly develop best practices or technical standards and to generate work that will safeguard or advance Internet infrastructure technology.

The four-day M³AAWG general meeting in Philadelphia will include anti-abuse training and about 50 sessions on email and mobile abuse, voice and telephony abuse, the latest malware threats, hosting abuse and public policy issues. Sessions on cybersecurity related to emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things and social messaging will also be offered.

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) members represent 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); CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL); Cloudmark, Inc.; Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA); Cox Communications; Facebook; Google; LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD); Mailchimp; Message Systems; Orange (NYSE: ORAN) and (EURONEXT: ORA); Rackspace; Return Path; SendGrid; Time Warner Cable; Vade Retro - OpenIO; Verizon Communications; and Yahoo! Inc.

M³AAWG Full Members: 1&1 Internet AG; Adobe Systems Inc.; Agora, Inc.; AOL; Bluehost-Endurance; Campaign Monitor Pty.; Cisco Systems, Inc.; CloudFlare; Constant Contact (NASDAQ: CTCT); dotmailer; Dyn; ExactTarget, Inc.; IBM; iContact; Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ, NASDAQ: IIJI); Level 3; Liberty Global; Listrak; Litmus; McAfee Inc.; Microsoft Corp.; Mimecast; Nominum, Inc.; Oracle Marketing Cloud; OVH; PayPal; Proofpoint; Spamhaus; and Symantec.

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