Revolutionizing Caller Authentication: STIR/SHAKEN and Fraud Reduction

Fraudulent calls have always been part of telecommunication networks even before the emergence of VoIP based communication solutions. As technological inventions like SIP calling paved the way to common lives, the threat of fraud calls and hack attempts also increased. In fact, in the USA around 4 to 6 million robocalls were detected and 40% of them were fraud calls. This demanded a robust solution to protect customers like a STIR/SHAKEN solution.

STIR/SHAKEN has brought a revolutionary change in the industry by reducing fraud attempts. It is so effective that the TRACED Act and FCC have mandated STIR/SHAKEN protocol in the public interest. Any communication service provider, be it a VoIP based or PSTN based, needs to implement this protocol to operate in the USA.

What is STIR/SHAKEN?

STIR is an acronym for Secure Telephone Identity Revisited and SHAKEN is an acronym for Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKEN. Both of these concepts use digital signature and encryption – decryption as one of the important factors in keeping customers safe from fraud calls like caller ID spoofing.

STIR/SHAKEN solution implements STIR/SHAKEN certificate into the network. This solution adds a SIP header at the originating end of the call. The SIP header will have different details identifying the caller and authenticating the caller ID. This information will be encrypted. At the receiving end, the termination service provider will decrypt SIP header information and cross check with the database to validate and verify the legitimacy of the caller ID. Based on the result, the service provider will give an alert along with the call to the recipient about whether the caller is legitimate or not.

Role of STIR/SHAKEN in Reducing Fraudulent Calls

Caller ID spoofing is a common cause of losses in the USA and similar countries. Caller ID spoofing indicates that someone imitates to be a person from authority or someone the recipient knows. This makes it easy for an attacker to trick the person and steal his or her money or sensitive information.

STIR/SHAKEN protocol implements an added layer of security by verifying and validating the authenticity of the caller ID. This gives a clear indication to the call recipient whether he or she should believe the caller and his talks or not. This helps in reducing fraud calls drastically.

Along with fraud calls, it is also effective in reducing robocalls, which is a kind of nuisance and a great bother for people.

Revolutionizing Caller Authentication with STIR/SHAKEN

Nothing can be better than knowing beforehand who you are talking with. Even more beneficial to know is whether the person you are talking to is reliable or someone imitating someone else with wrong intentions. STIR/SHAKEN does exactly this and therefore, it has brought a revolution in the VoIP and fraud management industries.

ASTP is renowned for its consultancy service to implement the STIR/SHAKEN certificate. Moreover, a team of VoIP experts of ASTPP also provides a STIR/SHAKEN solution for end-to-end implementation in ASTPP or any other VoIP solution. If you are interested in learning more about this service, please contact us.