STIR/SHAKEN testing through ATIS testbed aims to improve authentication
If there’s one call everyone hates, it’s a robocall. Unwanted, auto-dialed spam calls to mobile phones — perhaps with a spoofed caller identification number, so that the recipient thinks they are receiving a local call and are more likely to answer — are an annoyance and can be a vehicle for fraud. CTIA says that the industry stops around a million unwanted robocalls a day from reaching consumers, but many still get through.
Enter the Industry Robocall Strike Force, part of a broader anti-robocall effort supported by the Federal Communications Commission; an industry testbed and a framework that is SHAKEN (Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs) and leverages the Internet Engineering Task Force’s Secure Telephone Identity Revisited (STIR). Take that, James Bond!
Nearly 20 companies have signed on to participate in testing through the virtualized set-up hosted by Neustar Trust Labs, according to the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS). The testbed allows SHAKEN testing by generating end-to-end calls and enables operators and vendors to ensure interoperability, both for SHAKEN components and for complete network implementations. According to the strike force report, that testing is being provided free to qualifying service providers and vendors through the end of this year. Between SHAKEN and STIR, the goal is to to give service providers “the ability to authenticate, digitally sign and verify calling party numbers,” according to ATIS. Metaswitch claimed its spot as the first vendor to have completed testing of a STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication through the Neustar testbed.
Hank Skorny, SVP of Neustar and a member of the ATIS board of directors, said that “the growing number and variety of participants using the testbed – communications service providers, network manufacturers, solution vendors and government agencies – speaks to the urgency and the industry’s overall commitment to combatting unwanted robocalling and caller fraud.”
“As the FCC continues to address unwanted robocalling with formal inquiries and proposed rules, the testbed activities prove valuable in advancing solutions to protect consumers from the frustration, time lost and the potential damage that can result from unwanted calls and caller scams,” ATIS said in announcing the testbed activity.
“The companies involved in this testbed are committed to putting the STIR/SHAKEN framework into action,” said ATIS President and CEO Susan Miller. “By facilitating consistent and fully interoperable implementation of STIR/SHAKEN, the testbed plays a critical role in lessening the negative impact unwanted calls have on consumers’ lives – a key goal of the FCC’s Robocall Strike Force.”
Members of the strike force, which is 33-companies strong, include Apple, AT&T, Bandwidth, Ericsson, Inteliquent, LG, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sprint, Syniverse, T-Mobile, USCellular and Verizon. There is significant overlap between the strike force and CTIA’s Robocall Working Group, which was formed late last year.
The Robocall Strike Force Report, released in April of this year, documented the industry’s work to foil robocalls, including in areas of authentication as well as detection, assessment, traceback and mitigation.
“Many industry leaders in robocall mitigation have concluded that there is no ‘silver bullet’ to solve the problem,” the report noted. “However, to mitigate the problem of illegal robocalls, the industry is implementing a diverse multitude of evolving mitigation tools and efforts so that it becomes too costly for illegal robocalling campaigns to overcome the industry’s dynamic mitigation techniques.”
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