You’ve probably heard of STIR/SHAKEN. STIR (Secure Telephone Identity Revisited) and SHAKEN (Secure Handling of Asserted information using toKENs) are two standards for telecommunications providers to authenticate and share the trustworthiness of calling numbers. They have been created to combat robot calling and caller ID spoofing. According to Yourmail Robotcall index, over 4.6 billion robocalls were placed last month. That means that we each received about 14 of them.

The STIR protocol defines how providers should label callers:

  • A for calls originating from their network for which they provided the number. This is the highest level of “verification”
  • B for calls originating from their network but for which they didn’t provide the number
  • C for calls coming from another network that they cannot verify

The SHAKEN protocol defines how the various providers can securely share these certificates. The carrier delivering a call will tag it A, B, or C, indicate to the recipient the likelihood of it being SPAM, and offer the option to report a SPAM call.

So, why you should care? Both the US and Canadian communications regulatory bodies have mandated the use of the protocols by June 30. That’s a huge win for all of us. But if you’re a business using the phone to engage customers, you’d better know how your call will appear. Most enterprises use multiple numbers through different carriers, sometimes purchased indirectly. So, this is no easy task.

Brands need to get ready and should consider the following:

  1. Perform an inventory of all numbers currently being used
  2. Assess the reputation of your phone numbers. Some vendors have put together reputation services allowing you to check how your numbers are currently rated by the various telecom providers. Here at Acqueon, we’re working with several of them – such as Contact Center Compliance (DNC.com)
  3. Leverage your mobile app to enable verification. This is easily accomplished through the innovative Acqueon Identity solution that we introduced last summer

Let our solution architects help you prepare and put together your STIR/SHAKEN plan.