MAPS Extends Reputation Management Services

AOL Gives Support as a Founding Member of the ASFN

San Jose, Calif. August 12, 2004 - MAPS, a division of Kelkea, Inc. and the leading provider of network-layer anti-spam solutions, announced it has extended its Reputation Management Services for ISP's with the formation of the Alliance for Spam Free Networks^SM (ASFN^SM). Over the last 8 years MAPS has brought together a global set of ISPs in an effort to close their networks to spam. The creation of the ASFN was done to formalize these relationships and create visibility for these efforts, which are based on an open approach to providing reputation management services. The ASFN assists its members both in protecting their own good reputation, as well as identifying and stopping spammers based on their poor reputations. AOL has recognized how closely the efforts of the ASFN are aligned with their own anti-spam efforts and have committed their industry status and expertise as a founding member.

"The ISP industry wants a "good neighbor policy" that outlines and reinforces positive behavior from all ISPs for the benefit of the entire Internet community", stated Carl Hutzler, Director of Anti-Spam Operations at AOL. "We want to encourage ISPs to enact proactive network management policies to reduce the flow of spam throughout the Internet, and MAPS' third party status and approach that it has using since 1996 is exactly what AOL and others are looking to encourage ISP's to adopt."

The membership requirements for the ASFN are very similar to the guidelines suggested by the Anti-Spam Technical Alliance's (ASTA) of which AOL is also a founding member. The ASFN mirrors the efforts of that organization to establish and encourage the use of "best practices" for ISPs and enterprises in managing their networks and messaging systems. The ASFN actively assists its members to identify compromised sections of their networks and take steps to close their networks to abuse by spammers.

"The industry leaders wanted to enforce a uniform criteria within the ISP community on how to stop spam at the network-layer," added Dave Rand, CEO of Kelkea. "MAPS' experience as the original reputation management services company makes it the ideal organization to coordinate and manage the goals of ASFN. At the heart of our reputation management solutions is a refined set of actions that all ISP's can benefit from implementing in the fight to eliminate spam from the Internet."

The two primary requirements of ISPs for membership in the ASFN include: (1) providing the IP addresses of both legitimate sources of mail, as well as those which should not be sending mail, and (2) actively preventing their network from being used by spammers. By sharing information and working together to develop and enforce policies against the spammers, the members of the ASFN will be able to fight the exponential growth of spam and stop the spammers before they stop the Internet.

With the spam threat growing rapidly there is an increasing probability that messaging systems will fail. The major source of this threat is from end-users with compromised machines on broadband connections that are unknowingly hosting viruses that spew spam in huge volumes. The members of the ASFN recognize the need for the rigorous use of a responsive spam-fighting infrastructure and support a solution that requires ISPs to:

1. Implement blocking on port 25, while opening up port 587 with authentication, or a commitment to contribute their dynamic IP blocks to the MAPS DUL (Dynamic User List) and then use the MAPS DUL in their network management practices
2. Close their relays to prevent them from forwarding spam
3. Use a rate limiting approach on incoming email streams and be willing to escalate to fully block the suspect IP addresses
4. Continuing dialogue on IETF discussions and standards

About Kelkea Corporation
Kelkea, Inc. was founded in 2004 by Dave Rand, a founder of Mail Abuse Prevention Systems LLC (MAPS), which, prior to its sale of assets to Kelkea, was the recognized leader in network-layer anti-spam solutions. Kelkea is focused on developing standards and solutions for stopping the flow of unsolicited mail and improving communication methods across the Internet. The MAPS division of Kelkea has been offering IP blocking solutions since 1996 and has built a robust infrastructure to ensure its solutions are the most accurate and reliable in the industry. The company's solutions reduce IT, infrastructure and lost productivity costs for the Enterprise, Network and Access Provider markets and has over 2000 customers. For more information, visit www.kelkea.com.

Kelkea, MAPS, Alliance for Spam Free Networks, ASFN and DUL are service marks of Kelkea, Inc. All other company names and marks may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.