M3AAWG is exploring the historical journey that has shaped our organization for two decades. Each month in 2024, the pioneers of M3AAWG will appear in this blog to share our collective story. These are the trailblazers, the innovators, and the champions for action in M3AAWG!
This month’s interview is with Alex Bobotek. Over the past 20 years he has been a chair of M3AAWG’s Board of Directors, the Mobile Committee, Technical Committee, the Voice and Telephony Abuse Committee, and is currently the chair of the Technical Committee - Mobile
Bobotek has worked in AT&T Wireless and its successor companies in mobile browsing and messaging standards, architecture and security. Today he leads AT&T Labs’ mobile messaging anti-abuse architecture and strategy, and is a frequent speaker and active participant in M3AAWG , CTIA, MEF and other collaboration forums.
Here is our interview with the M3AAWG pioneer, Alex Bobotek.
How long have you been with M3AAWG?
Since 2004. San Diego was my first conference. There were people with knowledge, experience, stories, ideas and data in an increasingly-important area that few people then knew anything about - messaging security. From the start, M3AAWG certainly exceeded my expectations.
What inspired you to engage and contribute to M3AAWG?
I was inspired from the start by the potential for unexpectedly broad and deep education about spam fighting, the instant opportunities for collaboration and the passion of those involved. M3AAWG also provided a welcoming environment and a great working environment. M3AAWG had the industry technical experts, vendor product managers and service providers’ key policy-setters; it had the right mix of players to get results.
What would you say M3AAWG’s most important contribution to the industry has been over the past 20 years?
M3AAWG has been the best forum for education and collaboration in fighting messaging abuse. There’s no better place to understand how the abuse ecosystem works, and how to work with others to fight it.
What would you consider to be the biggest change in M3AAWG from its early days to now?
M3AAWG has blossomed from a nearly-single focus of fighting email spam to a diverse community of specialists and generalist practitioners of online anti-abuse while retaining an operational focus.
What would you consider the most significant challenge M3AAWG has faced in its 20-year history?
Staying relevant in an ecosystem increasingly dominated by proprietary services and restrictions driven by corporate fear of liability.
What are two of your best memories or proudest moments with M3AAWG?
Awarding Brian Krebs the Litynski award in 2014, and then receiving it in 2022. To give and to receive - how M3AAWG-like.
What role has M3AAWG played in your career?
M3AAWG is a place where I have listened, learned and developed many of the foundational ideas in discussions with some of the most dedicated, knowledgeable and impactful people in the business. This has helped not only to develop technical solutions, but also to form alliances and gain the respect needed to have impact not only inside my company but around the globe.
A great example of this is the development of the mobile messaging threat intelligence ecosystem, where 2 or 3 of us collaborated beginning in 2009 to first ignite 7726 mobile spam reporting as a global practice. This was a key enabler that allowed the planet to understand what abuse was present in mobile messaging and empower us to mitigate it. A whole M3AAWG community that I continue to be active in continues to develop it into an ever-expanding network of threat intelligence feeds and feedback loops to service providers, brands and cybersecurity services. 15 years later, this evolved threat intelligence ecosystem is a keystone of today’s mobile security.
M3AAWG has helped me to have an impact in many areas, and provided a forum where this impact is visible well beyond my company. This has helped my career development in AT&T, and while I have chosen to remain in AT&T, appreciating the flexibility and opportunities that AT&T has provided, M3AAWG has opened many doors for other opportunities across the industry.
What advice do you have for someone getting started in M3AAWG?
Get to know some of the experts and spend some time with them 1:1 or in a small group, draw them out and learn from them.
What is your greatest fear/hope for the online security/anti-abuse industry?
Greatest fear: competitive proprietary services quashing the collaboration and data sharing needed to fight an increasingly specialized abuse community that has evolved to exploit industry fragmentation.
Greatest hope: the right balance of privacy and security in information sharing.
People like Alex Bobotek established the foundation for M3AAWG’s efforts, building a legacy of work that has made a significant impact in the fight against online abuse over the past two decades. Bobotek, together with M3AAWG peers within the industry, created a trusted network to share diverse skill sets and information that aided in solving problems and creating potent strategies for combating online abuse. We are prepared to develop best practices and techniques to overcome today’s challenges because of the strength of this network. We extend our sincere thanks to Alex Bobotek and recognize that his contributions have helped us to see our future: a world free of online abuse.