Black Swan Solution Guide: SHAKEN / STIR Calling Number Verification & Fraud Alerting

Dear Colleague:

There’s a crucial problem in global voice communication.  But it has nothing to do with telecom technology such as protocols, call routing, or the jitter rate of VoIP packets.

Rather, it’s about something more basic: TRUST- trust that when a person receives a B2B and B2C voice call there’s some assurance it will be a positive experience, and not a connection to a fraudster.

In fact, a lack of trust today is destroying the value of all business calls.  And it’s ironic, for even as people have fallen in love with their Apple and Android mobile phones, your average U.S. consumer hesitates — and often fears — answering a blind phone call from an unknown source:

• Many consumers never answer a call from an unknown number, figuring it’s probably an annoying robocall.
  
• Others fear a phone scam where the caller phishes for personal data, then uses that info to steal money or raid their bank account.
  
• Time-wasting phone tag is a consequence of this lack of trust, too.  Both businesses and consumers are affected when customers don‘t pick up telephone calls, say, from their family doctor or auto mechanic.
  

Building the Future of Business Telephony Trust

Fixing the problem of trust in business voice communications won‘t be easy because we’ve let trust deteriorate for too long.  Certainly we need to walk before we run: it will take many years of hard work and telecom industry commitment to ensure success.

Also required is the cooperation of many parties: service providers, industry consortia, application developers, and government regulators.

SHAKEN/STIR is the telecom industry’s first step toward reviving trust in telephony.  Launched in the U.S. market at the end of 2019 and soon to launch in Canada, it sets the vital framework for how telecoms can deliver identity verification information for enterprises from originating to terminating provider.

And now, a comprehensive 18-page briefing on SHAKEN/STIR is available featuring the analysis of two technology leaders at iconectiv, Chris Drake, Chief Technology Officer and Gary Richenaker, Principal Solutions Architect.

iconectiv has been heavily involved in the design of SHAKEN, and was appointed last year as the STI-Policy Administrator (STI-PA) of the U.S. implementation of SHAKEN/STIR.

This is the latest Black Swan Solution Guide and it’s entitled, Restoring Trust & Mitigating Fraud in Business Voice Calls via SHAKEN / STIR Calling Number Verification.  Click the image above to download in Guide in PDF.

Contents of this Guide to SHAKEN/STIR

In this Guide, Chris and Gary sort out the keys issues:

• The worldwide crisis in illegal robocalls — the countries of the world who face the greatest threat; robocalling niches considered lawful, plus new U.S. legislation and law enforcement steps being taken to tame illicit robocalls.
  
• Other key business voice fraud that SHAKEN/STIR will help mitigate such as common fraud schemes, phone scams, and fraudulent traffic pumping.  You’ll also read about an on-going international telemarketing criminal scheme to rob elderly victims in Japan of thousands of dollars via calls from foreign countries.
  
• The origins of STIR and SHAKEN and how those programs are being coordinated to provide a complete enterprise verification solution across VoIP and circuit telephony networks.
  
• The role of international standards bodies and consortia in the development of SHAKEN/STIR.
  
• Details on the recent U.S. and pending Canadian launch of SHAKEN/STIR;
  
• The levels of business attestation (or trust verification) in SHAKEN as well as the control process that surrounds it;
  
• The key issue of multi-homing exceptions, such as via third party number providers, outbound partners such as external call centers, and virtual partners.  Here, you’ll learn how iconectiv proposes to have SHAKEN interact in multi-homing scenarios.
  
• Finally you’ll learn about the proposed Omni-channel SHAKEN that will provide consumers information about the caller no matter what device they use — phone, PC, mobile device or tablet.
  

In short, Chris and Gary provide a wealth of information that’s vital for you to know as SHAKEN/STIR goes to market and drives to become a worldwide standard.

Dan Baker, Research Director of TRI
Editor, Black Swan Telecom Journal