New Specification by ATIS and SIP Forum Designed to Mitigate Robocalls and Caller ID Fraud
WASHINGTON, D.C AND NORTH ANDOVER, MA (February 2, 2017) – ATIS and the SIP Forum are pleased to announce publication of the SHAKEN (Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs) specification, a major advancement in industry efforts to mitigate unwanted robocalls and caller ID spoofing.
Developed to efficiently implement the IETF’s STIR (Secure Telephony Identity Revisited) standard, SHAKEN defines a signature to verify the calling number and specifies how it will be transported in SIP “on the wire.” The SHAKEN framework provides guidance for service providers to implement STIR. Together, STIR/SHAKEN will offer a practical mechanism to provide verified information about the calling party as well as the origin of the call — what is known as “attestation” — for the first time in the network. Giving service providers the tools needed to sign and verify calling numbers makes it possible for consumers to know, before answering, that the calls they receive are from legitimate parties.
“Today’s solutions for blocking unwanted calls depend on caller ID, which can be easily spoofed leaving consumers inherently vulnerable. STIR/SHAKEN verifies calling party information, creating a solid foundation for existing and future call-blocking applications,” said ATIS President and CEO Susan Miller. “Unwanted robocalling is the FCC’s leading cause of consumer complaints. This ATIS specification not only mitigates the problem but also assists law enforcement in finding the source of unwanted calls. ATIS is pleased to have developed this solution with the SIP Forum giving consumers more control over the calls and texts they receive.”
“The SIP Forum is delighted to work with ATIS on advancing this technology. Not only are robocalls the leading cause of consumer complaints in the United States, but they are also the number one consumer complaint in the United Kingdom and Canada. We jointly hope to see this solution adopted internationally,” said Richard Shockey, Chairman of the Board of the SIP Forum. “And we will not stop here. The SIP Forum will continue to work closely with ATIS in the weeks and months ahead on advancing the state of the art and work with the industry-led Strikeforce on Robocalls and appropriate national regulatory authorities.”
To obtain a copy of the SHAKEN Specification, please visit the ATIS White Paper Center here: http://www.atis.org/01_resources/whitepapers.asp#signature or the SIP Forum website here: https://www.sipforum.org/content/view/439/312/.
To speed deployment of the new specification, carriers will be validating its effectiveness through the Robocalling Testbed: https://www.neustar.biz/atis-testbed/index.php.
About ATIS
As a leading technology and solutions development organization, the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) brings together the top global ICT companies to advance the industry’s most pressing business priorities. ATIS’ 150 companies are currently working to address 5G, the all-IP transition, network functions virtualization, big data analytics, cloud services, device solutions, emergency services, M2M, cyber security, network evolution, quality of service, billing support, operations, and much more. These priorities follow a fast-track development lifecycle – from design and innovation through standards, specifications, requirements, business use cases, software toolkits, open source solutions, and interoperability testing.
ATIS is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). ATIS is the North American Organizational Partner for the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a founding Partner of the oneM2M global initiative, a member and major U.S. contributor to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), as well as a member of the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL). For more information, visit http://www.atis.org.
About the SIP Forum
The SIP Forum is an IP communications industry association that engages in numerous activities that promote and advance SIP-based technology, such as the development of industry recommendations, the SIPit, SIPconnect-IT and RTCWeb-it interoperability testing events, special workshops, educational seminars, and general promotion of SIP in the industry. The SIP Forum is also the producer of the annual SIPNOC conferences (for SIP Network Operators Conference), focused on the technical requirements of the service provider community. One of the Forum’s notable technical activities is the development of the SIPconnect Technical Recommendation – a standards-based SIP trunking recommendation that provides detailed guidelines for direct IP peering and interoperability between IP PBXs and SIP-based service provider networks, and the SIPconnect Certification Testing Program, a unique certification testing program that includes a new certification test suite and test platform, as well as an associated “SIPconnect Certified” logo program that provides an official “seal of certification” for companies products and services that have successfully passed the certification test and officially achieved conformance with the SIPconnect specification. For more information about SIP Forum initiatives, please visit: https://www.sipforum.org.
ATIS Contact
Marcella Wolfe
Manager, Media Relations
& Marketing Communications
Phone: +1-202-434-8851
Email: mwolfe@atis.org
SIP Forum Contact
Marc Robins
President & Managing Director
Phone: +1-203-829-6307
Email: marc.robins@sipforum.org
###