TELECOM CARRIERS TAKE UP CUDGELS AGAINST BOTNETS

摘要

An industry anti-spam group whose leading members include large telcos and cable companies is grappling with botnets, leaders said. About 350 participants from 130 companies and 10 countries worked Tuesday to Thursday at an annual San Francisco meeting of the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group on a draft paper about remedies and challenges, they said. The document will be reviewed at the group's meeting June 9-11 in Amsterdam, to get comments from European and Asian participants, said Executive Director Jerry Upton. He said publication of the final version is expected by September. The challenge is daunting because botnets are designed to be as difficult as possible to remove from computers, said the group's chairman, Michael O'Reirdan, an engineer at a big cable operator. Other sides of the group's campaign against botnets include cooperation with law enforcement and efforts to prevent members' networks from being compromised, O'Reirdan said. AT&T and Verizon are represented on the group's board. Sprint and Verizon Wireless are among the growing number of mobile carriers that belong, as worries about SMS abuse grow.