Are callers on your network protected from spam calls?

A massive number of robocalls, spoofed calls, and other types of malicious calls are made every month to millions of callers in the United States. Although recent legislation has made it more difficult for these calls to get through and falsely appear legitimate, the problem remains a major one for consumers and service providers alike.

The main tools for combating these calls are call filtering services. Many major voice service providers have made these services available to members of their networks for free.

A call filtering service is an important part of protecting consumers from calls that can turn them into victims of spam, scams, and more. In this blog post, we’ll cover how this kind of service works, how STIR-SHAKEN makes them more effective, and how you can implement STIR-SHAKEN on your network.

How call filtering works

Call filtering, as implied in the name, allows a consumer to take greater control over which calls they do and don’t receive. One example of a strong call filtering service is a whitelisting tool, as explained in this article from Consumer Reports.

This only allows someone to receive calls from callers on their list of contacts. This comes with the obvious upside of outright preventing spam calls from getting through, but also the downside of preventing important calls from numbers you may not have saved, like from a doctor’s office or other important infrequent contacts.

This is far from the only way to defend against unwanted calls, however. In fact, the implementation of the STIR-SHAKEN framework by many voice service providers has made blocking calls from genuinely malicious callers less of a concern for users and more of an automated function.

The role of STIR-SHAKEN

STIR-SHAKEN authenticates calls made on a provider’s network and providers callers with a token verifying them with a certain level of attestation. This may result in the caller being verified as legitimate, flagged as potentially illegitimate, or blocked entirely.

STIR-SHAKEN does more than just prevent spam calls and make them easier to identify, however.

Implementation of the framework is required by law for every service provider in the United States. If a provider hasn’t implemented it, calls originating from their network won’t be accepted by other providers.

This makes STIR-SHAKEN an even more effective tool for preventing robocalls, as it cuts off many potential avenues for these calls to reach users. It also makes it even more important for providers to implement the framework into their networks as soon as possible.

Implementing STIR-SHAKEN

STIR-SHAKEN must be implemented into the IP portion of a service provider’s network.

Before a provider can begin authenticating calls, they’ll need to receive a Service Provider Code. This allows the provider to receive a certificate from an FCC-approved authority, verifying them as a qualified entity.

From here, you can begin generating user authentication tokens for calls made on your network. You can read more about how the token generation and authentication process works here.

Contact us to learn more

STIR-SHAKEN is a game-changer when it comes to offering effective call filtering services and protecting consumers from spam calls. Utilizing it is the most important part of keeping your network secure, trustworthy, and reliable for your users.

Working through every step necessary to implement it, though, can be complex.

Prescott-Martini specializes in assisting voice service providers with implementing STIR-SHAKEN. We offer services for call verification, Robocall Mitigation Database registration, and more.

If you haven’t implemented STIR-SHAKEN yet, we’re here to help. For more information, get in touch with us now.