CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The APWG is joining law enforcement and regulatory authorities in five nations around the world in a multinational “Day of Action” against massmarket fraud, by committing its data logistics resources and consumer education programs to law enforcement efforts to engage this kind of fraud as an international threat deserving of a globally coordinated response.

Law enforcement and regulatory authorities in the United States of America, Australia, Canada, Netherlands and the United Kingdom have marked June 1 as a coordinated “Day of Action” to warn consumers worldwide about the dangers of mass‐market fraud, including its online variants.

The APWG, a global association of some 1800 technology, consumer and financial services companies, government agencies and research institutions working to coordinate industry and government’s effort against electronic crime, is committing three specific programs to the task of unifying the global response against electronic crime through its free data logistics resources and consumer education programs.

APWG/CMU Phishing Education Landing Page Program: The system, new operating in 20 languages, redirects a consumer who has clicked on a link in a phishing email to a page of instruction in his own language about how to avoid phishing in the future. It is freely available to any ISP to replace a phishing website with a redirection script to the resource at: http://education.apwg.org/r/ The full program description is here: http://education.apwg.org/r/about.html

The APWG/NCSA Online Consumer Safety and Security Messaging Convention: The Convention is crafting a public message to raise cybersecurity awareness and positively change how people secure their computers and networks and interact online, leading to more cybersecure societies. The Convention’s messaging, to be announced this Fall, will cut through the cluttered marketplace of information, tips and advice and give all stakeholding companies, government agencies and NGOs a common safety message to promote. The full program description is here:http://education.apwg.org/safety/about.html

The IODEF Extensions for eCrime Reporting: The APWG has developed and promoted extensions to a standardized data sharing format, the Internet Engineering Task Force’s Incident Object Document Exchange Format (IODEF), specifically to give ecrime responders and investigators a common, consistent data format to exchange and process electronic crime event reports. This XML-based schema is complete enough to give the community of ecrime responders and investigators a pupore-built mechanism for automating the processing of ecrime event reports, potentially enabling those responses to become contemporaneous with the execution of the crimes themselves. The full program description is here: http://www.antiphishing.org/iodefFormat.html A description of a test pilot program for the schema is here: http://www.antiphishing.org/reports/IODEF_Pilot_Program.pdf

APWG Secretary General Peter Cassidy said, “Electronic crime is different. It requires a response paradigm that hues closer to a public health agency collaboration than conventional law enforcement. Toward that vision, APWG members and research collaborators have been cultivating common resources that can pay large dividends in common safety at little or no cost. The APWG is honored to be able to participate in the ‘Day of Action’ and make its resources available to the community that is engaging ecrime worldwide.”

About the APWG:

The APWG, founded in 2003 as the Anti-Phishing Working Group, is a global industry, law enforcement, and government coalition focused on eliminating the identity theft and fraud that result from the growing problem of phishing, email spoofing, and crimeware. Membership is open to qualified financial institutions, online retailers, ISPs, the law enforcement community and solutions providers. There are more than 1,800 companies, government agencies and NGOs participating in the APWG and more than 3,300 members. The APWG's Web site offers the public and industry information about phishing and email fraud, including identification and promotion of pragmatic technical solutions that provide immediate protection. APWG's corporate sponsors are as follows:

AT&T(T), Able NV, Afilias Ltd., AhnLab, AVG Technologies, BillMeLater, BBN Technologies, Blue Coat, BlueStreak, BrandMail, BrandProtect, Bsecure Technologies, Check Point Software Technologies, Cisco (CSCO), Clear Search, Cloudmark, Cyveillance, DigiCert, DigitalEnvoy, DigitalResolve, Digital River, Easy Solutions, eBay/PayPal (EBAY), Entrust (ENTU), eEye, ESET, Fortinet, FraudWatch International, FrontPorch, F-Secure, Goodmail Systems, GeoTrust, GlobalSign, GoDaddy, Goodmail Systems, GuardID Systems, HomeAway, Huawei Symantec, IronPort, HitachiJoHo, ING Bank, Iconix, Internet Identity, Internet Security Systems, Intuit, IOvation, IronPort, IS3, IT Matrix, Kaspersky Labs, Kindsight, Lenos Software, LightSpeed Systems, MailFrontier, MailShell, MarkMonitor, M86Security, McAfee (MFE), MasterCard, MessageLevel, Microsoft (MSFT), MicroWorld, Mirapoint, MySpace (NWS), MyPW, MX Logic, NameProtect, National Australia Bank (ASX: NAB) Netcraft, NetStar, Network Solutions, NeuStar, Nominum, Panda Software, Phoenix Technologies Inc. (PTEC), Phishme.com, Phorm, Prevx, The Planet, SIDN, SalesForce, Radialpoint, RSA Security (EMC), RuleSpace, SecureBrain, Secure Computing (SCUR), S21sec, Sigaba, SoftForum, SOPHOS, SquareTrade, SurfControl, SunTrust, Symantec (SYMC), TDS Telecom, Telefonica (TEF), Trend Micro (TMIC), Tricerion, TriCipher, TrustedID, Tumbleweed Communications (TMWD), Vasco (VDSI), VeriSign (VRSN), Visa, Wal-Mart (WMT), Websense Inc. (WBSN) and Yahoo! (YHOO).