Anti-Phishing Working Group
Type: | non-profit |
Founded: | 2003 |
Founder(s): | David Jevans |
Website: | AntiPhishing.org |
Facebook: | APWG |
Twitter: | @APWG |
Anti-Phishing Working Group is a global association working for the reduction and prevention of identity theft, phishing scams, fraud and malware. The association works in collaboration with international organizations including ISPs, governmental agencies, multilateral treaty organizations, research centers, trade associations, online retailers, banks, police and security providers.[1] Currently APWG has more than 2,000 members but membership is constantly crowing among eligible organizations. According to APWG surveys and studies, malware is continuously increasing.[2]
APWG organizes meetings, seminars and summits to increase cyber-security awareness. The complete list of past and upcoming events can be seen here.
APWG & ICANN
APWG and ICANN have several common members. APWG participated in ICANN meetings held in Vancouver and Lisbon in 2005 and 2007 respectively. ICANN was represented by John Crain in APWG meeting Orlando in 2006.[3]
Public Education
APWG has taken an initiative to educate people about phishing scams. For this purpose the association has started several education programs;
- Phishing Education Landing Page Program started with Carnegie Mellon CyLab's Supporting Trust Decisions Project in 2008.
- Fax Back Phishing Education Program.
- The APWG/NCSA's Stop. Think. Connect. Messaging Convention started in 2009 with NCSA.
- APWG/NCSA Counter Muling Project.
Besides these programs APWG has started an eCrime research project. The association invites academic institutions, researchers and industry individuals from all over the world to participate in its conferences.[5]
Sponsors
APWG is being sponsored by several international organizations. Some known security providers sponsoring APWG are:[6]
- DigiCert.
- Cyveillance.
- TrendMicros.
- GeoTrust.
- EasySolutions.
- McAfee.
- VASCO.
- Symantec.
Other sponsor organizations include AT&T, Afilias Ltd., AVG Technologies, BBN Technologies, Cisco, PayPal (EBAY), eCert, Entrust, GoDaddy, Kaspersky Labs, MasterCard, Microsoft, MySpace, National Australia Bank, NetStar, Network Solutions, NeuStar, Panda Software, SIDN, Tagged,VeriSign and Yahoo!.[7]