January 16, 2004 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — A group of telecommunications carriers, Internet services providers and software companies have banded together to form the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group, a coalition aimed at fighting spam, according to a report published this week in CNET.
Carriers and ISPs participating include Adelphi, Bell Canada, Bell South, Cox, Internet Initiative Japan, IIJ America and Telus.
OpenWave Systems (openwave.com), a software company, is heading the coalition, which plans to set up a “neighbourhood watch,” facilitating the sharing of information about spammers within the group.
“Simply put, we can create a worldwide real-time neighbourhood watch. If I am blocking some eastern European IP address, and if I know this spammer’s identity, why wouldn’t I share that with my neighbourhood?” Richard Wong, general manager of the messaging group for OpenWave, told CNET.
The establishment of the coalition comes as spam continues to reach new heights.
A new anti-spam law was signed by President Bush on December 16, 2003 and went into effect on January 4, 2004.
MX Logic, a provider of email security solutions, recently conducted a study that found a sampling of mass-mailings to be 99 percent non-compliant with new anti-spam laws.
