Insights

Webinar Recap: Third-Party Certificates: Learn Why You Need to Make this Your First Priority

Sep 19, 2023

Protecting consumers from unwanted and illegal robocalls continues to be a top priority at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is why the adoption of the Sixth Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) presents an exceptional step forward as well as helps to further expand the reach of STIR/SHAKEN. 

During the webinar, Third-Party Certificates: Learn Why You Need to Make This Your First Priority, attendees heard directly from exceptional telecom experts who have spent years – if not DECADES – researching, understanding and educating the public on network traffic as well as the many challenges that illegal and/or fraudulent traffic can create for legitimate operators. 

Hosted by Somos’ Vice President, Regulatory and Public Policy, Joel Bernstein, this webinar included panelists from the following fraud prevention authorities:

• Heather Barrows, Vice President, Operations at 800response
• Glenn Richards, Communications Practice Group Leader at Pillsbury Law
• Chris Shipley, Executive Director, Public Policy at INCOMPAS
• David Hancock, PKI Security Analyst at Somos

While the challenges to Resp Orgs and service providers can appear insurmountable at times, there is a new crop of solutions, such as DNO lists like RealNumber DNO, that are being leveraged to ensure that network traffic is kept free of nefarious activity. 

But during this webinar, the spotlight was on the importance and benefits of Third-Party Certifications (also known as delegate certificates). Among the top advantages cited were:

• They provide a way for service providers to indicate the verified association between the user of a telephone number and the number itself.
• They enable cryptographic proof of the association carried in the call signaling, which can be verified on the terminating service provider’s network. This likewise lets the party being called know that the person on the other end is authorized to use the number that they are calling from.
• They help individuals feel more confident answering calls as well as instill greater trust in telecom.

In the end, one thing that clearly united the panelists – regardless of whether they are a Resp Org, legal expert or security engineer – was the importance of third-party certificates and the vital role that STIR/SHAKEN plays in enhancing confidence and trust in phone calls.

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