Just imagine this harrowing scenario. You wake up in the morning and you receive one call after the other in quick succession STIRSHAKEN. You don’t hear a live person on the other side. It’s a pre-recorded message that comes from unknown sources. You then realize that you are dealing with multiple robocalls during an average day.
It may sound just irritating. But it’s much more dangerous than that. A robocall sent with malicious intentions can rob you of your identity, wipe out your entire life’s savings, and do a lot more damage than you can imagine.
But, fortunately, there is a sophisticated technology that not only bars spam and scam robocalls but verifies and authenticates every caller’s identity.
Welcome to the world of STIRSHAKEN (Secure Telephone Identity Revisited/Signature-based Handling of Asserted Information Using toKENs). Without the innovative technology, the volume of robocalls every person would have dealt with would be unimaginable!
This blog post discusses the impact of STIR/SHAKEN and what role it plays in the contemporary telecom space.
Impact of STIRSHAKEN
STIR/SHAKEN has had a significant impact on the telecommunications industry and the experience of phone users. Here are some key impacts of STIR/SHAKEN:
1. Reduced robocalls
One of the primary goals of STIR/SHAKEN is to reduce the prevalence of robocalls. In the last few years, the menace of spam and malicious robocalls has increased manifold. To put things in perspective, Americans received over 50 billion robocalls in 2022! The innovation of STIR/SHAKEN has played a huge role in the reduction of robocalls.
2. Improved call trustworthiness
The worst thing about robocalls is the trust issues they create when any call rings. There have been instances when several people have avoided genuine and important calls for days (or months) fearing robocalls. Their fear is not unfounded. Every call can seem to be dubious when an average person receives as many as 17 robocalls on any fine day. STIR/SHAKEN helps in verifying the legitimacy of calls, which, in turn, improves the trustworthiness of phone calls.
3. Cryptographic signature
STIR/SHAKEN provides a cryptographic signature for every call. Doing so, they act as a stamp of authenticity. The receiving network can then use this signature to verify the legitimacy of the caller ID. This approach makes it considerably more difficult for scammers and fraudsters to spoof caller IDs and deceive unsuspecting recipients.
4. Enhanced caller ID integrity
Enhanced caller ID plays a huge role in screening an inbound call from a number that is not added to your contact list. When you receive an incoming phone call from a number that is not in your contact list, enhanced caller ID will attempt to look up the caller’s name from a national database. Your caller ID integrity can help enhance answer rates, customer retention, and trust in your brand for outbound calls. STIR/SHAKEN discourages caller ID spoofing, making it more difficult for malicious actors to impersonate others through fraudulent caller IDs. This protects individuals and organizations from fraud and scams.
5. Protection of sensitive information
For some industries, such as finance and healthcare, protecting customer information is extremely important. That’s because such industries deal with highly sensitive information and a slight mistake can be extremely dangerous for both customers and businesses. That’s where STIR/SHAKEN proves to be extremely useful. By providing an added layer of security, the framework ensures that calls from these sectors are trusted and authentic.
6. Regulatory compliance
Do you know what is the Federal Communications Commission’s top consumer complaint? Unwanted call, which includes illegal and spoofed robocalls. STIR/SHAKEN helps service providers comply with regulations and legal requirements related to caller ID verification and consumer protection. Non-compliance with the regulations can result in fines and penalties. The STIR/SHAKEN framework helps businesses adhere to anti-robocall regulations.
7. Improved customer experience
Will it surprise you to know that the STIR/SHAKEN feature enhances customer experience? That shouldn’t. Because the very purpose behind the inception of the framework was to spare customers the horrors of malicious robocalls and enhance their experience. When customers receive fewer spam calls, fraudulent schemes, and unsolicited marketing calls, their overall phone call experience is bound to enhance.
8. Enhanced reputation for businesses
Nothing can be more damaging for a business than being accused of fraud calls. Organizations that rely on phone communications can benefit from STIR/SHAKEN as it helps ensure that their legitimate calls are recognized and trusted. By doing so they can enhance their reputation. When legitimate businesses implement the STIR/SHAKEN feature, their calls are recognized and trusted. That enhances their reputation.
9. Emergency services and public safety
Not all robocalls come from fraudulent companies and malicious actors. Many of them come from government agencies to inform about any urgent emergency. If these important calls are barred, then it can cause an insurmountable crisis. In such scenarios, STIR/SHAKEN functionality can be very useful. STIR/SHAKEN provides a means for emergency services to ensure that their calls are trusted and promptly answered, improving public safety.
10. Industry collaboration
The implementation of STIR/SHAKEN has fostered collaboration within the telecommunications industry. After the widespread adoption of STIR/SHAKEN and government mandates in the US and Canada, service providers, carriers, and regulators are collaborating closely to establish a more secure and trustworthy calling ecosystem.
11. Blocking unverified calls
What do you do when you receive an unverified call? You have two choices—to receive or ignore it. Even though it’s advisable to choose the latter, many people tend to pick the former. That is, many receive unverified calls anyway, hoping it is a call from a legitimate organization or any family member. That’s when they expose them to danger. This is where the STIR/SHAKEN framework can help. It can enable service providers to block unverified calls and label them as potentially fraudulent.
12. Innovation in call authentication
The development and adoption of STIR/SHAKEN have driven innovation in call authentication technologies, encouraging the development of new solutions and standards to further improve call security. STIR/SHAKEN helps reduce the economic impact of phone fraud and scams, which can result in significant financial losses for individuals and organizations.
Taking everything into account
Since its inception, the STIR/SHAKEN framework has made a huge impact on the telecommunications landscape by addressing the growing problem of illegal caller ID spoofing and robocalls, improving the security and authenticity of phone calls, and enhancing the trustworthiness of the phone call experience for consumers and businesses.