In early November 2025, the Japan Anti-Abuse Working Group (JPAAWG) held its 8th General Assembly in Kochi Prefecture. As its international partner, the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG) sent multiple members from North America to attend the event. A key focus of the meeting was the topic of "SMS Blasting". In her keynote speech, Tanya Plaza, Chair of the M3AAWG Mobile Committee, noted that M3AAWG was able to learn about this emerging threat in advance precisely thanks to prior information sharing by JPAAWG members. She emphasized that cybercriminals operate without regard to national borders, and the anti-abuse community must therefore be equally global, collaborative, and technically resilient.
During her keynote address, Tanya Plaza highlighted a SIM card farm case busted by the U.S. Secret Service in September 2025. Regarded as a shocking telecommunications threat incident, the case targeted senior U.S. government officials. She specifically pointed out that M3AAWG’s early awareness of the emerging threat of SMS Blasting was directly attributable to prior information sharing among JPAAWG members. "It is this knowledge sharing that allowed M3AAWG to learn about SMS Blasting abuse before it was detected on U.S. soil," Tanya stated. "Criminals operate in cyberspace without being constrained by national borders, so the anti-abuse community must be equally global, collaborative, and technically resilient." She also stressed that these cyber threats targeting government officials fully illustrate the global nature of the issues that need to be addressed, noting that "no single country can solve them alone; we need to work together across regions."
In addition, Steve Jones joined Tanya Plaza on stage to present on the spread of AI-powered cyberattacks in Asia and how defenders can leverage AI for cross-departmental and cross-organizational collaborative responses. Steve also delivered a separate presentation on recent activities of the IETF DKIM and DMARC Working Groups, focusing on the progress of the DKIM2 project over the past year. Tom Bartel’s participation centered on strengthening partnerships with organizations dedicated to combating online and telecommunications abuse.
The meeting also featured a panel discussion on countermeasures against SMS phishing and spam. JPAAWG Chairman Shuji Sakuraba previously stated: "With phishing attacks targeting securities firms surging, measures to combat spoofed emails are urgently needed. At the 8th General Assembly, we plan to discuss the current state of phishing attacks in Japan, effective countermeasures such as DMARC and BIMI, and related technologies including DNS and user authentication."
