Pioneering Identity-Based Cybersecurity in Voice

What is plaguing our telecom infrastructure, globally, is fraud through impersonation of both consumers and businesses. With a growth trajectory projecting close to $83 billion by 2028, Numeracle is focused on solving the problem of business impersonation today.  

Numeracle’s Entity Identity Management solution does more than remove spam labels and add branding to phone calls — it's the active protection of an entity's calling and, therefore, digital or mobile identity. Ongoing fraudulent activities, including illegal robocalling and identity impersonation, are facilitated through the voice channel due to an antiquated ecosystem allowing for anonymity.  

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Javelin Strategy & Research, fraud committed through identity impersonation has cost Americans $8.8 billion, with upwards of $20 billion lost in traditional identity fraud in 2022 and has cost more in daily disruptions to consumers.

With the attention of regulatory bodies such as Congress, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and State Attorneys General, the telecommunications industry is shifting its focus towards reinforcing identity on the network to reinstate consumer trust in who is calling, preventing bad actors from impersonating business callers and continuing to defraud citizens.  

Digital/Mobile Identity

To address the issues of fraud, illegal robocalls, and identity impersonation (also referred to as illegal spoofing) in communications, Numeracle has played a pivotal role in solving broader issues of identity management and security. We continue to set the bar for establishing, maintaining, and enforcing standards for the appropriate use of services to mitigate risks by understanding who is calling and why because we see phone numbers as more than digits on a screen. Because phone numbers are a universally recognized form of identification, they can tell us a lot about the identity behind a caller, including any fraudulent behavior attached to that number.

“Picture the phone number as a dual entity, existing both offline and online. This duality is what renders it extraordinary on the global stage. In the tangible world, it’s the familiar string of digits you recite when exchanging contact details. In the digital realm, it transforms into a virtual passport, opening gates to a myriad of online services.”
— Global Telco Consult. Read More

Proof-of-Concept: Protecting Consumers from Identity Fraud

Numeracle is the innovator behind identity-based technologies and telecom standards adopted by the major wireless carriers and brands, all of whom recognize the importance of safeguarding their digital and transmittable identities.  

We exemplify our commitment through multiple proof-of-concept (POC) collaborations, such as the one conducted with industry giants Comcast and T-Mobile in the earliest days of the concept of identity making its introduction in telecom, that tangibly demonstrate our capabilities in innovating and implementing solutions that resonate with the evolving needs to address identity fraud. In a partnership initiative that included Comcast, Numeracle completed the first call successfully delivered over the T-Mobile network with authenticated, vetted identity information presented in the caller ID field, powered by STIR/SHAKEN call authentication requirements.  

“Enhancing authenticated caller ID as an extension of STIR/SHAKEN, Rich Call Data is an evolutionary leap forward for trust in the phone ecosystem. Using public key cryptography and the global STIR/SHAKEN family of protocols, Rich Call Data allows legitimate callers to tell recipients exactly who they are, where they’re calling from, and even why they are calling, with the highest degree of trust and certainty. This technology is particularly important for enterprise callers, who need reliable tools to reach their customers. The history-making call was completed on Comcast’s voice network using a suite of interoperable technologies and networks from Everbridge, NetNumber, Numeracle, and Twilio.”
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Completing the call with end-to-end caller ID authentication meant leveraging Numeracle's Verified Identity vetting and identity validation process due to its compliance-based Know Your Customer (KYC) and customer due diligence, which validates the business identity and calling competency, ensuring the calling party was accurately identified and delivered.

Where We Go From Here

After six years of industry influence, our efforts span the adoption of policy and standards, engagement with regulatory mandates, and the introduction and development of cutting-edge technologies designed to fortify the telecom ecosystem and protect consumers from identity-related fraud. At the forefront of our initiative is the active testing of the delivery of Verified Business Identities^TM to consumer devices with the explicit goal of empowering consumers with the confidence to engage with incoming calls and that the identity behind the call is a trusted source, not someone impersonating their bank.  

Stay tuned for more Numeracle updates on protecting your calling identity from fraudulent events. If you’re ready to start protecting your calls, contact us today.