Antispam Group, MAAWG, Outlines Defenses Against Botnet-Induced Spam

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Antispam Group, MAAWG, Outlines Defenses Against Botnet-Induced Spam

Jun 26, 2008 9:14 AM PDT
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A major antispam organization is pushing a set of new best practices for ISPs to stop increasing volumes of spam from botnets. The guidelines, from the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG), were drawn up at a meeting in Germany last week and deal with forwarded email and email that is sent from dynamic IP addresses. From MAAWG's news release issued yesterday:

Network operators and ISPs from around the world have cooperated on two new best practice papers addressing technical issues that will help block botnet-induced spam and improve the deliverability of consumers' personal emails. The recommendations for sharing IP address space and for email forwarding were approved at a Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) meeting in Heidelberg, Germany last week and are available today.

"MAAWG Methods for Sharing Dynamic IP Address Space Information with Others" resolves a concern heightened by the proliferation of botnets, which often use dynamic addresses to send spam. The paper describes four approaches to make these addresses more easily obtainable by mailbox providers and includes a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of each.

The methods in the paper "MAAWG Recommendations: Email Forwarding Best Practices" will help ISPs distinguish legitimate consumers using a forwarding service from spammers. It outlines practices to improve cooperation between volume forwarders and network operators to avoid unintentionally blocking valid accounts because of abusive incoming mail.

Read full story: PC World

See related topics: Security, Spam