STIR/SHAKEN 101

STIR/SHAKEN is a technology framework designed to reduce fraudulent robocalls and illegal phone number spoofing. STIR stands for Secure Telephony Identity Revisited. SHAKEN stands for Secure Handling of Asserted information using toKENs. Its goal is to prevent fraudsters from scamming consumers and businesses through robocalls and illegal phone number spoofing, while making sure that legitimate calls reach the recipients.

The FCC has adopted rules requiring service providers to deploy a STIR/SHAKEN solution by June 30, 2021.

STIR/SHAKEN is a great tool to help providers restore confidence in the calls they're connecting. It is not a one-stop solution for preventing telecom fraud. In fact, its main use is to verify that a call being made is in fact from the owner of the telephone number.

To verify the ownership of the phone number, there are 3 types of attestation:

1. A (Full) - The service provider knows the customer and their ownership to use the phone number.
2. B (Partial) - The service provider knows the customer, but not the source of the phone number.
3. C (Gateway)  - The service provider has originated the call onto the network but can’t authenticate the call source and phone number. e.g international gateway.

On the terminating end, attestation of A and B are usually considered good calls but not guaranteed from being blocked, because analytic engine and fraud system have other factors considered than attestation result.