Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/20580
THE BOTNET FIGHT industry’s collective wisdom on avoid- ing common mistakes and how to pro- vide a better online experience for us- ers. Best practices are guidelines freely offered by the industry to be voluntarily applied within a relevant organization’s strategic and technical framework. The question any enterprise or busi- ness should be asking is not if it should implement anti-abuse best practices. Given the enormous cost and risk as- sociated with spam and bots, the question is why would an organization not make adopting best practices a priority? Many of these practices cost next to nothing to implement, in many cases just requiring simple configura- tion changes or minor modifications to working practices. Best Practices Illuminate Industry’s Shared Knowledge Industry associations like MAAWG bring together representatives from all perspectives to work out solutions to common problems. As a result, the best practices developed through MAAWG tend to be more balanced rather than advancing a specific company’s or busi- ness sector’s interests. For example, many of the bulk senders in MAAWG worked closely with our network operator members to understand all sides of the issues when developing the MAAWG best practices for email mar- keters. Likewise, ISPs talked with abuse desk professionals in developing the best practices for notifying users when they have a bot on their computer and in addressing other issues related to re- mediation of infected machines, which often are placed in walled gardens. Best practices also help to clarify the processes and technological strategies proven to be most effective in combat- ing abuse. They often spell out com- mon steps abuse and IT managers can take to better serve end-users. MAAWG recently issued the first best practices aimed at providers of Web messaging systems. Among the recommenda- tions were several well-known tactics that might otherwise be undervalued by Web messaging developers, such as auditing user account metrics and requiring registration before users can post or send messages. In some respects, battling spam and cybercrime is a never-ending arms race. The outcome of the effort within orga- nizations like MAAWG to develop best practices is that smaller enterprises or regional operators have access to the broader and more varied experience of larger companies. These larger op- erations, with access to more resources and higher R&D budgets to invest in anti-abuse strategies, willingly share their knowledge and expertise to help advance the industry. The only way to take down zombies, bots and spam is through this type of socially responsible action. By working together to protect the Internet and us- ers’ online experience, we all profit. To that end, we have all been deputized in the Internet posse. MR/TMP Michael O’Reirdan is serving his third term as chairman of the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG), the industry’s largest global trade association that works against messaging spam, viruses, denial-of-service attacks and other online exploitation. Professionally, O’Reirdan is a Distinguished Engineer at a major ISP in North America with over 18 years of experience in the ISP field and with public facing messaging platforms. He has served on executive advisory boards for several major computer vendors and academic institutions and is active in other industry organizations. FOR YOUR REFERENCE Ferris Research, inc. www.ferris.com Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group www.maawg.org messagingnews.com COMING IN THE NEXT ISSUE OF COVER STORY Managing Unexpected Threats SPECIAL FEATURES Safeguarding Data in Motion Cloud Security Risks How Safe is Social Media? REGULAR FEATURES Be Our Guest Industry expert guest columnist Making the Case Real world case study Short Takes Late breaking news and factoids MESSAGING NEWS For advertising and custom publishing opportunities contact: Jeff Victor, Publisher email: jvictor@messagingnews.com telephone: 847.367.4073 22 MESSAGING NEWS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010