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Mobile Ecosystem Security – Threats, Trends, And Predictions

The telecom industry is no stranger to security threats.

From phishing to SMS scams, the industry has seen it all.

However, the industry is still seeing a spike in these threats. For example, in 2022, consumers in the US lost $330 million to SMS scams.

What’s more? Telecom operators have also witnessed new telecom frauds in recent years.

According to Nokia’s report, there has been a five-fold increase in malicious botnet Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) traffic emerging from vulnerable IoT devices. Another report stated that nearly three-quarters of 5G operators experienced up to six security breaches. These resulted in network downtime, regulatory issues, and unauthorized access to customer data.

While technologies like IoT and 5G promise a future of connectivity and innovation, mobile operators worry about new threats.

They must consider new mitigation strategies to improve mobile network security and adapt to the ever-changing landscape.

Let’s look at various threats to discover how operators overcome them with the latest security technology.

Five Trends And Predictions To Secure The Mobile Ecosystem

Attackers have found a new way to hack the network. It’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). They have been using AI/ML to impersonate humans to enter the network, build sneakier malware, and create deep fake data.

The good news is operators can use the same technology to solve the problem. They can use AI to analyze baseline behavioral patterns and highlight anomalies. For example, AI/ML can analyze previous breaches, such as malware, phishing, and DDoS, and suggest mitigation steps to operators.

This helps them take pre-emptive measures on time and safeguard the network. It will also allow them to improve network reliability and protect customer data in real time.

5G security

Several telecom operators have started providing 5G network connectivity to customers in different countries. 5G promises to connect billions of devices and people by transporting data 1000 times faster than 4G. In fact, 5G is more secure and addresses the vulnerabilities of the 4G network. For example, it offers more robust encryption, data protection, and end-to-end security protection for source and destination network traffic. It provides a unique feature called network slicing that segments the network and offers custom security controls. So, operators can block or quarantine the traffic on that network slice whenever there is an incident. This helps in reducing the attack surface, enhancing security.

However, there are still a few privacy concerns. One being that 5G connects more devices than 4G, exposing the network to more vulnerabilities. Operators could face challenges in real-time while monitoring threats, compromising the connected devices.

These issues have brought several telecom operators together for the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) collaborative project. it aims to set and update security standards based on the changing landscape.

Threat intelligence sharing

Despite collecting large amounts of information on cyber threats, operators do not share it with other operators.

In an interconnected world, operators can no longer withhold threat intelligence information or function in silos. They must share this information in order to improve security posture and safeguard customers from threats. This could include sharing the latest on emerging threats, best practices, and standardized protocols. The aim is to help operators put a united front to stay ahead of the attackers.

GSMA’s T-ISAC and FASG have already started sharing knowledge and best practices to make networks more secure. They host webinars and share industry experts’ opinions on building a safe environment for operators to exchange intelligence safely.

Such initiatives motivate operators to become more proactive in sharing intelligence with others.

SMS Firewalls

Due to the staggering number of application-to-person (A2P) messages from enterprises worldwide, SMS fraud remains a concern. According to Elon Musk, X lost over $60 million yearly due to A2P fraud. Mobile operators are concerned about this loss and have taken precautions to alleviate these issues. One of the solutions used is SMS firewalls.

An SMS firewall acts as a barrier for mobile networks. It screens the incoming and outgoing messages based on algorithms to detect and block malicious messages. This prevents spam and fraud messages from reaching the recipients, saving them from data theft.

IoT security

Every industry – from healthcare to manufacturing- is adopting IoT to connect devices and accelerate innovation. However, the connected devices are susceptible to cyberattacks like malware despite their benefits. A single attack is all it takes for a bad actor to steal sensitive data from the device and halt all business operations.

Mobile operators can address these issues by implementing a device authentication mechanism, zero-trust policy, and end-to-end data encryption. They can also isolate the IoT network from the main infrastructure to prevent attackers from entering the network and impacting critical systems.

As the IoT ecosystem expands, operators must take additional precautions to nip the attacks in the bud. Vodafone, for example, uses traffic management tools to set thresholds and alert customers when they identify a suspicious pattern. This allows operators to provide innovative connectivity solutions without compromising on security.

Conclusion

Mobile operators must constantly balance enhancing security and introducing innovative products. This helps them to meet customer demands, of securing the network from threats.

Combining new mitigation strategies and advanced technologies with AI/ML capabilities can help operators achieve the required balance. It also helps them improve compliance and save cost.

We recommend working with a trustworthy technology partner who can provide the right technology to identify and block threats.

Globe Teleservices, for instance, has been building solutions like Armour and Grentor to protect networks from frauds. Armour uses AI/ML and analytics to prevent voice and SMS fraud. Grentor tracks network user activities to detect and analyze fraud, helping operators protect country networks from bad actors.

Solutions like these help operators take pre-emptive measures and build innovative solutions without compromising security.

If you’ve been looking for solutions to safeguard your network, voice, and SMS from threats, contact us. We’ll be happy to help.

Customer Experience Trends For 2024 – Telecom Edition

The role of customer experience in telecom is being radically transformed in the wake of increased digitization. As 5G networks, better infrastructure, and newer markets emerge, the telecom sector is at the cusp of a customer experience transformation. It’s also true that in many ways, the telecom industry has the potential to impact the way other sectors build their customer experience. In fact, recent studies show that nearly 76% of customers still prefer a telephone conversation with customer support. This statistic itself highlights the important role a telecom services provider has in the customer experience lifecycle across sectors. Clearly, knowing the market pulse is important for improving customer experience in telecom.

Communication is a key driver of customer experience. Hence, a telecom services provider must know what customers expect in every kind of interaction to deliver great experiences not just within their business, but also to support other sectors to offer the same to their customers.

Let us explore the top trends relating to customer experience in telecom for 2024:

1. Hassle-free onboarding

The digital economy is rising globally. People are shifting more of their common activities into digital mode. The changed behaviors that persist even after that pandemic is behind us have accelerated the trend as well. From banking to shopping, education, and entertainment, customers are demanding hassle-free digital experiences. This is not only a benchmark for any telecom services provider but also a key promise they need to enable for their enterprise customers.

They need to ensure that customers get a hassle-free no-nonsense onboarding experience into their network. Authenticating credentials shouldn’t be a problem. From auto parsing of OTPs to flash calls, there are a host of solutions that telecom providers must deploy to improve the onboarding experience.

Furthermore, they can also act as a gateway agent for other businesses to build similar experiences. For example, authenticating a user’s credentials via OTPs or flash calls can be a standard option for an OTT app or a social media app. Telecom players can be the bridge of trust serving both the customer and the business that wants to engage with them. With platforms like Authentrica, this can be easily achieved.

2. Learning about the customer

Most businesses believe that knowing the customers enables better service delivery. In 2024, businesses will need to deploy more innovative means to capture data from customers and learn from it. In the past surveys about customer experience were the de-facto medium for businesses to gain insights. However, studies say that a typical survey considers less than 7% of a business’s actual customer base for generating insights. The need to go beyond surveys is evident here. This is where a telecom services provider can make a difference.

Telecom providers can capture the preferences or consent of customers for all sorts of communications that happen over the network. That could be permissions for SMS campaigns, WhatsApp communications, emails, etc. It could be to create powerful Customer Data Platforms or first-party data gathered with customer consent. Telecom companies and their customers can leverage platforms like Consentica to manage user consent effectively. Using this information, they can help build better customer experiences based on ethically gathered customer data.

3. Protect personal data

Building trust is a key factor that influences customer experience. As we move deeper into the digital economy, customers are also becoming more aware of the threats that lurk out there. Many of these threats can be addressed if adequate protection is offered for sensitive data. Hence great customer experience demands a more strategic and focused approach towards integrating security features for personal data.

Telecom companies too must follow this trend. However, they have the additional opportunity to become a second layer of protection for customers. As explained earlier, telecom companies can build a layer of trust by collecting consent info from their customers. By building powerful encryption and network protection frameworks, they can ensure that personal data is never compromised by services running on networks. With tools like TxtChain, they can help trace telemarking activity with strict control on how user data is leveraged by 3rd party services. Firewall solutions can be deployed to ensure vulnerable entry points are discovered and neutralized before any incidents happen.

4. Preparing for an exciting journey

2024 will witness further expansion of the digital landscape in almost every sector. Telecom companies have the opportunity to not just improve the customer experience they provide but also drive industry standards across sectors. They can become the supporting framework for other sectors to push their customer experience initiatives forward at an accelerated pace. However, to do so telecom companies need to have the right technology required to build a powerful service economy on top of their network infrastructure. From security to monetization of assets through expansive partner services, telecom companies have a real potential to transform from their traditional roles. GTS is the perfect partner to ensure success on this path. Get in touch with us to know more.

The One “Platform” To Help You Transform Customer Experience

The one factor that distinguishes great companies from mediocre ones is personalization.

Great companies personalize experiences and go beyond transactional relationships to engage with customers and build long-lasting bonds with them.

So, what’s stopping other companies from delivering these elevated experiences?

According to Statista, 80% of companies acknowledge the impact of personalization on customer spending. 62% admit that it has improved loyalty and retention.

Yet, due to fragmented data from disparate sources, most companies are unable to customize.

It’s apparent that companies need a comprehensive view of their audience to understand their needs and tailor interactions.

However, the increasing touchpoints make it hard for them to gather, analyze, and act on the data.

That’s where the Customer Data Platform (CDP) comes to the rescue.

What Is A Customer Data Platform?

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) is a software solution that collects and organizes data from different sources to build a single customer profile. It collects the customer’s identity, lifestyle, as well as behavioral and aspirational data from sources like CRM, social media, websites, and PoS systems. This detailed data enables companies to create comprehensive customer profiles, individualize experiences, predict trends, and accelerate decision-making. It’s called a platform because it serves as a unifying frame for the entire range of applications and solutions that need to access customer data to drive action.

Why Use CDPs?

A CDP can deliver multiple benefits:

Unifies data

CDPs use SDKs and APIs to pull data from disparate sources into a single platform. It creates a customer profile containing Personable Identifiable Information (PII) such as the customer’s name, address, email ID, etc. The unified customer profile can be used by marketing, sales, product management, and customer support teams to improve customer experience.

Improves personalization

Besides PII, CDPs also capture extra insights like browsing history, website visits, and social media activity. This valuable information enables the sales and marketing teams to understand preferences and buying patterns. It empowers them to customize product recommendations and create targeted marketing campaigns to increase engagement. More importantly, the support team can leverage this data to tailor customer interactions. A cohesive, hyper-personalized approach can help companies boost customer retention, repeat purchases, and reduce churn.

Makes compliance easier

Companies must adhere to regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to build customer trust and avoid legal hassles. The centralized platforms of CDPs can help companies collect and manage all the data in a single location. It will also protect the PII details and audit them regularly. By storing all information in one place, a company can easily grant access to customers to view it upon request. This will help companies improve transparency, protect customers’ privacy, and maintain compliance.

Supports data-driven decision-making

In a fast-paced business landscape, companies have to make quick business decisions. For that, they need access to real-time data. CDPs can gather real-time information from different sources and provide timely insights on customer behavior and market demands. Such rich information can help decision-makers forecast trends and behaviors accurately and devise strategies to meet them. CDPs are truly useful in improving decision-making and aiding innovation. It enables companies to accelerate go-to-market strategy and gain a competitive advantage.

How Telecom Operators Can Benefit From CDPs

A telecom operator receives customer first-party data, including PII details, customer usage patterns, travel habits, device preferences, and billing information.

If used correctly, all this information can help improve personalization.

According to McKinsey, telecom operators can boost revenue by 10% and customer engagement by 20-30% through data-driven personalization.

However, only 5% of them are harnessing data to personalize experiences.

That’s why CDPs are so vital for telecom operators. They can gather data about the customer into a unified platform and use it for the following purposes:

Personalize subscription plans and offers

Telecom operators can use CDPs to analyze usage patterns and recommend relevant subscription plans. For example, they can suggest unique roaming plans for frequent travelers or internet plans for remote professionals. This will help them deviate from the usual one-size-fits-all offerings and improve retention.

Upsell and cross-sell plans

CDPs offer a complete view of usage patterns, allowing operators to cross-sell or upsell relevant packages. For instance, they recommend location-specific data and voice call plans to frequent travelers and higher data plans to streaming users. This helps operators increase sales and drive revenue.

Reduce churn and retain customers

With the help of CDPs, operators can categorize users based on their activity and engagement levels and launch targeted campaigns. For instance, they can send renewal notifications to expiring subscriptions and display attractive data and voice packages to new customers. These individualized campaigns can reduce churn and increase retention.

Improve compliance

There’s a thin line between personalization and privacy violation. Telecom operators should be careful not to cross that fine line. A data breach or privacy violation could lead to irreparable damages to the operator’s reputation and revenue loss. CDPs can help operators adhere to compliance rules like GDPR. By breaking down silos, it unifies information, improving transparency and efficiency in data management. It can help operators establish data governance standards, improve access control, and track suspicious activities. It acts as a single source of truth and provides more visibility on how data is stored, accessed, and handled. It makes monitoring and tracking efficient.

How Can Telecom Operators Enable Innovation With CDPs?

The telecom industry is evolving rapidly, making it increasingly complex for operators to differentiate themselves. It has become even more challenging for them, with the Millennials and Gen Z becoming the primary user base. They expect individualized experiences from their telecom operators.

Thus, companies need to devise unique initiatives to engage with them. For example, they could offer micro-finance for device purchases or do something as simple as streamlining the digital onboarding process.

CDPs help operators enable innovation #ei, offering valuable insights into customer behavior.

It’s an excellent technology to retain your users, earn more revenue, and grow.

To know more about how CDPs and other technologies can benefit your business, contact us.

Top 5 Ways in Which Modern Telecom Solutions Change Lives

Conversations around the evolution of telecommunications, wireless networks, internet services and more, usually revolve around communications and business applications. While the power of telecommunication has indelibly changed that space, it has also transformed other aspects with a far deeper and life-changing impact.

This blog explores how modern telecom solutions are changing lives.

Fostering socio-economic development

Modern telecom solutions have been instrumental in connecting individuals across urban and rural, and rich and poor segments. These solutions have delivered access to information, markets, and services, where its impact can be felt most significantly by the underserved sections of the society.

Telecommunication solutions have also influenced digital inclusion and equality by giving people from all walks of life access to essential digital technology. This has been instrumental in reducing socio-economic inequalities and fostering inclusive economic growth. Mobile phones have represented the first telecom infrastructure in many places and are proving crucial in driving connectivity.

It is through these solutions that people in the underserved areas delivered tangible economic benefits and improved access to information.

These solutions also create employment opportunities and influence economic outcomes. The mobile industry in the Sub-Saharan region, for example, has created approximately 2 million jobs for people directly and created employment for another 1.8 million people in the wider ecosystem in 2019.

Financial inclusion driven by digital payments and mobile money

The rise of digital payments and mobile money can be credited to the maturing of telecommunication networks and infrastructure. This growth has been further fueled by the expanding number of telecom solution providers, and pursuant innovation in this space.

Financial inclusion prompted by mobile money and digital payments has been a game changer for people. This is felt especially in areas where traditional banking services are inaccessible. Almost half of the world’s mobile money accounts come from the underserved Sub-Saharan region. This region also has more mobile money accounts than bank accounts.

The rise of digital payments and mobile wallets have driven financial inclusion in underserved areas and have made payments faster, simpler, and safer across the world. Innovations in the form of e-KYC have further driven financial inclusion by allowing those operating in this sector to acquire reliable and clear documentation.

Enable Small Business to Make a Big Impact

Modern telecom solutions are the cornerstone of the digital economy. Telecom solutions have helped small businesses remain agile, flexible, and responsive to constant change and market disruptions. These solutions have been instrumental in driving e-commerce and have helped many small entrepreneurs start small businesses from their homes.

These solutions improve connectivity and accessibility, allowing small businesses to expand their customer footprint. They also help them manage their customers, partners, distributors, and supplier ecosystem irrespective of their location.

Robust telecom solutions and internet services are driving cost savings and cutting travel expenses. They are delivering access to talent from low-cost geographies for small businesses using teleconferencing and remote work.

Effective telecom data management and real-time analysis provide valuable insights into markets, customers, and operations of a small business. SMS and social media messaging provide opportunities to engage personally with customers and improve customer experiences.

Telecom solutions have become instrumental in protecting revenues by ensuring greater security from grey routes and challenges like data theft, SIM phishing, and other threat actors.

Effective telecom solutions are helping small businesses enhance operations, creating opportunities to improve customer service, increasing efficiencies, and driving their growth and success.

Revolutionizing Healthcare Access and Delivery

Modern telecom solutions have been instrumental in making healthcare services more accessible and cost-effective, across rural and underserved areas. These segments of societies across different geographies can access medical services and healthcare professionals irrespective of geographical barriers.

Telemedicine, mHealth, remote health monitoring, etc. have enabled people to access quality healthcare, especially in places where it has been limited traditionally. The integration of telecom tech solutions in the healthcare ecosystem has improved medical diagnostics, enabled real-time collaboration amongst physicians and healthcare professionals, and enabled remote patient monitoring to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes.

Telecom solutions have been instrumental in enabling preventive medicine too. These have allowed healthcare professionals to provide personalized care plans and make timely data-driven adjustments. According to a study from the National Library of Medicine, telemedicine is as effective as in‐person visits for reducing 30‐day readmissions in patients with heart failure.

Improve education access

Mobile phones and the internet have been a key driving force in improving access to education and changing the lives of people. Telecom solutions in the education space are bringing classrooms online and improving knowledge access. They are creating pipelines to help learners draw distant information, interact with experts, and engage with students worldwide.

Telecom solutions have ensured that students in underserved areas can access quality information that would otherwise be hard to acquire. These have been instrumental in improving inquiry-based and analytical skills and creating greater access to education.

Wireless connectivity allows learners to access educational content from anywhere and collaborate with their peers and teachers. It democratizes education by increasing learning opportunities and allowing economies to build educated workforces.

Modern telecom solutions have been instrumental in reshaping the world that we live in and have been creating more equity for those in poor, rural, and underserved areas. And technology plays a key role in helping telcos deliver the services that change lives.

For instance, telecom solution providers need to exert caution to prevent incidents like grey routes and ensure greater security of their networks. Small businesses demand greater assurance, low latency, and cost-effectiveness in international voice and messaging services. Telecom solutions providers and CSPs deliver origin-based routing services for dynamic routing, as well as anti-fraud voice solutions for the best and most secure business communications. Real-time call monitoring and anti-fraud checks also become essential to drive seamless connectivity and secure networks for safer, smarter, and faster communications.

Telecom solutions are essential to spearhead the advancement of emerging economies worldwide. They improve communication access across the underserved sections of society and create opportunities. Underserved regions like Africa are now connected to the rest of the world more than ever before thanks to proliferating telecom networks. Today, telecom solutions have been instrumental in promoting health, education, agriculture, entertainment, business and tourism.

Also, more than 300+ hubs have emerged in the African tech startup ecosystem because of the telecom sector. These are creating more opportunities for economic advancement and social upliftment.

Changing the world isn’t easy but someone has to do it. As we can see, telecom services companies are trying to do just that, with a little help from technology!

The Exciting Promise of Generative AI in the Telecom Sector

The telecom sector is experiencing rapid technological evolution and adoption. Telecom-specific technologies heralded by the coming of 5G and the rise of themes like OpenRAN, and network virtualization are helping improve efficiency and performance. The rise of technologies such as cloud, IoT, and 5G are also helping this sector improve operational efficiencies and elevate security. They are also helping in fraud prevention and helping companies drive personalized customer experiences.

Rising cost pressures and increasing competition are further incentivizing technology exploration for telecom and network operators, CSPs, and others operating in the telecom universe.

Generative AI is emerging as a new force promising transformational outcomes to the telecom industry and helping them navigate some of their most pressing challenges.

Why should the telecom sector pay attention to Generative AI?

AI has been one of the most talked-about technologies of our time. Generative AI is expected to be bigger and more impactful.

Reports suggest that the Generative AI market is to grow a staggering US$1.3 trillion in the next 10 years. The global Generative AI in telecom market size, estimated at USD 150.81 million in 2022, is expected to touch approximately USD 4,883.78 million by 2032.

Generative AI could find many applications in telecom and has a large impact area. For instance, it could allow telcos to work with huge data volumes and give them insights into identifying patterns to drive a positive impact on the bottom line. It promises to create opportunities to redefine how the telecom sector operates, engage with customers, optimize services, secure operations, and drive profits.

Generative AI seems to have the potential to solve complex problems and find several application areas in the telecom ecosystem.

Some of them are:

Network performance optimization

Telecom networks are vast and complex. Thousands of interconnected components run this ecosystem. Network reliability and performance are of paramount importance.

Generative AI can improve the performance, efficiency, and reliability of telecommunications networks to satisfy the ever-increasing demands of different customer segments. The technology can also support 5G initiatives by providing intelligence for load balancing and traffic shaping.

CSPs can use Generative AI solutions to unearth advice from vast amounts of unstructured data. This helps in network performance optimization, operating cost management, avoiding over or under-provisioning resources, and overall network management improvement.

Resource planning, management, and optimization

Telecos can now use the power of Generative AI to plan and build networks more efficiently to improve network performance and improve costs. This technology allows telcos to extract insights from unstructured data. This allows them to analyze data from sources such as social media, emails, customer calls, etc. to predict future demand for services.

It can analyze large data sets on network usage and predict where resources are likely to be needed. Better resource allocation capabilities directly translate to better user experience, improved customer experience, and more cost optimization.

Security and fraud detection

AI has been at work helping telcos enhance the security of their networks for a while now. With Generative AI telcos can examine larger, unstructured data sets, and set rules and user behaviors. This allows them to identify patterns that detect malicious activities and attacks proactively and effectively.

Generative AI allows telcos to move beyond static rules to address rapidly evolving and advanced threats targeting CSP networks. Algorithms that adapt to the changing threat landscape, automate anomaly detection and enable automatic remediation actions. These can present relevant data to human security analysts for faster issue detection and resolution.

Enable innovation and accelerate R&D

One of the emerging challenges in the telecom sector is the rapidly evolving regulatory landscape. Maintaining data privacy and security is becoming important for compliance with regulations like GDPR.

Generative AI can generate large volumes of synthetic data. This makes it uniquely positioned to help telecom companies and CSPs fuel innovation exploration and accelerate research and development.

Synthetic data resembles real data. It can thus be used to test and develop solutions. It can also be used to drive analytics and probabilities without exposing customer/sensitive information. This helps telcos drive their innovation agendas while maintaining data privacy, mitigating risks, and ensuring compliance.

Customer Experience

Generative AI presents numerous opportunities to influence customer experience. These range from user behavior modeling to predict customer response to new services, pricing models, and network changes. It could also be possible to identify ways to enhance service delivery with generative AI-powered chatbots as well as to adopt more intelligent CRM systems.

Intelligent virtual assistants can help the telecom sector improve operational efficiencies by relieving customer service agents of routine tasks and freeing them up for more complex assignments.

Generative AI can be used to power CRM systems and analyze extensive real-time data to gain deep insights into customer behavior. It helps companies identify potential churn risks, reduce response times, and enhance support experiences. Gen AI can analyze customer interactions, sentiment, and behavior data to grasp customer sentiments and preferences, foresee customer requirements and preemptively tackle potential concerns.

Smart Billing

Telcos can add greater intelligence to billing systems, increase billing accuracy, and reduce manual work and human errors with Generative AI. The technology can analyze customer usage data and behavior patterns and assist in creating personalized billing plans that improve customer satisfaction and reduce billing disputes.

Generative AI also finds application in fraud mitigation with a powerful algorithm ecosystem that examines trends and abnormalities in network data. The telecom sector can look at Generative AI to prevent phishing, sim-card cloning, and other security vulnerabilities and protect sensitive infrastructure and consumer data from unauthorized access or attacks.

Generative AI holds tremendous potential to drive transformational outcomes in the telecom sector. It will be interesting to see how the industry progresses to adopt it.

Shining A Spotlight On International Revenue Sharing Fraud

As the world becomes a global village, people rely on international calls and SMS to connect across borders. In fact, it has become one of the most reliable revenue sources for telecom operators.

According to a Global Market Insights report, the International Voice Carrier market will grow to $120 billion by 2032. To offset carrier costs and maximize revenue, telecom operators worldwide enter an agreement to share revenue from calls, premium numbers, and content services.

While this arrangement ensures transparency, rising incidents of International Revenue Sharing Fraud (IRSF) plague the industry. According to the Communications Fraud Control Association (CFCA), IRSF has led telecom companies to lose nearly $27 billion.

But what is IRSF, and how does it impact the telecom industry? Let’s find out.

What Is International Revenue Sharing Fraud And How Does It Affect The Telecom Industry?

To understand how IRSF works, we must know how it began.

As mentioned, telecom operators have secured arrangements with each other to share the revenue from international calls.

Revenue share varies by location and carrier due to differences in local costs and revenue goals.

Some destinations, for instance, have high call termination rates.

In IRSF, the fraudster routes the calls/messages, often automated and/or fake, to premium services or destinations with high termination rates. The fraudsters receive a higher revenue share by exploiting the revenue-sharing agreement, and telecom operators lose money in the process.

Types Of International Revenue Sharing Fraud

IRSF attacks could happen through compromised devices, bots, stolen SIM cards, etc. Here are some of the common types of IRSF attacks that occur.

1. SIM Box fraud

Fraudsters use a device called a SIM Box that contains multiple SIM cards. They use it to bypass the international call charges and make international calls using the local rates. They also direct the call or SMS to specific destinations or premium rate numbers.

2. Malware

Telecom companies are struggling to protect customer data from rising malware attacks. By some estimates, over 5.5 billion malware attacks occurred in 2022. Typically, malware enters a network and exposes customer data to various cyberthreats.

Telecom operators have always been conscious that they could face financial losses and lose customers due to security breaches, network disruptions, and service outages. To add to that, recently, the computer emergency response team (CERT) of Orange, Poland’s leading mobile operator, discovered that malware can make IRSF calls.

They explained in a communication that the malware would sneak into a mobile phone with an old Android version. It would wait till the phone is inactive for a long time to make paid calls to expensive destinations outside Europe. The “hack” often goes unnoticed until the customer receives a bill for calls they never made.

3. IP-based

IRSF is not restricted to calls or SMS anymore. Fraudsters are now targeting digital-native companies, too. They have started creating synthetic identities (a combination of fake and real customer information) and generating revenue using fake numbers. This impacts the reputation of the digital-native companies and ruins the customer experience.

How To Tackle International Revenue Sharing Fraud?

Despite being prevalent for so many years, detecting IRSF is very complex. That’s because multiple jurisdictions are involved in the process of collecting, routing, terminating, and tracking this traffic. These frauds are so complex that even law enforcement agencies struggle to identify their origin. Sometimes, the scam comes to light only when the customers complain about the exorbitant bill and at others, not at all!

According to the Communications Fraud Control Association (CFCA), telecom companies lost $38.95 billion to frauds like IRSF.

However, the good news is these frauds can be prevented with the help of regulations and technology.

1. Regulations

Given the complexities of detecting such frauds, telecom companies, regulators, and companies must work together to tackle them.

Take New Zealand Telecommunications, for instance. The leading telecom player in New Zealand had established IRSF prevention guidelines to protect customers. The guidelines provided steps to help network operators, service providers, and carriers to combat IRSF. These included guidelines like educating customers about changing PINs, turning off PBX ports, not answering calls from unknown international numbers, etc.

Similarly, Europol established a Cyber Telecom Fraud Working Group in 2017. The group comprised law enforcement officers from 18 countries and more than 35 global telecom companies to combat IRSF. In 2018, the group reported over 250,000 fraudulent transactions, 100 were reported to law enforcement agencies, and 25 new investigations were initiated. The group managed to block payments worth EUR 13.13 million.

2. Technology

Telecom companies and regulators should invest in AI/ML-powered technologies due to the multi-jurisdiction nature of crimes. This will help them detect IRSF more proactively and prevent them. These technologies can detect fraud patterns or suspicious behaviour of a user on any network and take proactive steps to suspend them. They can also use historical data to analyse and predict abnormal patterns and take pre-emptive measures to secure networks.

As IRSF becomes more sophisticated, companies cannot use traditional fraud detection systems. They must use an advanced anti-fraud solution to identify IRSF and other fraud across local and international markets.

Conclusion

The telecom industry plays a pivotal role in economic progress. Telecom bridges the global connectivity gap and uplifts the economy. Voice calls and SMS are the ever-present fabric connecting the different facets of our world today. People and businesses in remote areas can also grow by relying on this essential connectivity.

Thus, it is crucial for telecom companies to keep adopting innovative technologies to prevent telecom fraud and keep the growth engine running.

At Globe Teleservices, we believe in enabling innovation across the telecom spectrum.

Hence, we build innovative technologies, methods, tools, and approaches to help the telecom industry meet challenges and customer demands.

We have developed technologies like Armour X to identify IRSF and other fraud across local and international markets. This helps telecom companies reduce revenue leakage, improve customer experience, and secure their network better than competitors.

To know more about how technology can help you prevent telecom fraud like IRSF, contact us.

The Evolution of Firewall: From Legacy Systems to Next-Gen Security

In an industry that prides itself on keeping the world connected digitally, the telecom sector is no stranger to security threats. With the highest number of global DDoS attacks, it has long relied on firewalls as a primary threat aversion mechanism.

Legacy firewalls have been a mainstay for a while

By filtering out suspicious traffic or rogue elements from within their global network through predefined rules, firewalls have safeguarded the telecom sector from several threats. 5G rollout is underway on a big scale globally. As the world prepares for a new dimension of digital complexity, traditional firewalls may not do the job for telecom players anymore.

The challenges of legacy firewalls

They are incapable of supporting modern network complexities. They could also fall short of being able to handle newer operating nuances like cross-protocol integration, security node-based signaling in the place of core network nodes, etc.

However, an even bigger threat lies in the inability of legacy firewalls to counter new-age cyber threats.

The digital world which is growing exponentially is also now one of the major avenues of fraudulent activities and exploitation. From the theft of sensitive customer data to impersonation or identity fraud, the breadth of the threat landscape is immense.

Cybercriminals are even deploying artificial intelligence-driven agents into the digital space to break safeguards and penetrate deeper into enterprise networks. Very often, the entry point they choose to attack is the gateway used by an enterprise to connect with the internet. Suspicious links embedded in SMS text messages can go past legacy firewalls and easily put users at risk.

That’s why traditional firewalls deployed by telecom operators must be equipped with the intelligence or knowledge needed to combat such threat agents.

The shift to new generation firewalls – Why now?

The need to strategically move into the next generation of firewall capabilities is critical given the industry’s role as a key pillar of digital transformation in all sectors. Additionally, here are some of the top reasons why telecom operators must embrace the next generation of firewall technologies to stay competitive:

Rise of cloud

Today, cloud services are used by almost every business irrespective of its size or domain. With the cloud, user authentication becomes a major step of the usage journey. Most businesses rely on traditional methods like SMS-based OTP authentication or call-based authentication to help end-users avail cloud services. However, legacy firewall technologies cannot distinguish between genuine authentication prompts sent by the business and fraudulent signals ingested into the network by criminals.

New age threats

Telecom fraud is a major threat that needs attention. Studies point out that in 2023, telecom fraud has risen by as much as 12%. This translates to billions of dollars in lost revenue.

Similar to SMS frauds, and authentication fraud via missed calls mentioned before, there are a number of diverse network-focused threats in play today. Through fraudulent routing, fraudsters may bypass legacy firewall protection and reach end users with communication scripted as a genuine business message. Other means like bulk malicious SMS traffic may cause legacy firewalls to be jammed and entry into the network automatically provisioned to prevent further congestion. Such threats pose significant risks to telecom operators, compromising network security and yielding negative outcomes.

Growth of IoT

With 5G technology taking off at scale, businesses will look forward to mobilizing their resources around promising technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT). Worldwide spending on IoT is expected to surpass the USD 1 Trillion mark by 2026.

A lot of machine integrations will happen in services traditionally offered by businesses. For example, scenarios like a smart fridge placing replenishment orders to the nearest grocery retailer or an e-commerce service autonomously can become a normal thing soon. There is a catch here. With machine communication over the internet becoming mainstream, it is extremely important to authenticate credentials of control data. Control data could be transmitted in the form of messages, calls, etc. Traditional legacy firewalls are not capable of handling such advanced authentication processes.

The promise of new-generation firewalls

As telecom companies gear up to spearhead digital innovation, they can certainly leverage highly intelligent firewalls like the GTS Armour firewall to guard their progress at all times. Such new-generation firewalls come with a host of features that are much needed in the emerging security and evolving landscape of telecom usage.

One of the striking benefits that telecom companies can leverage from modern firewall solutions is the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in firewall operations. From threat discovery to neutralization, AI-powered continuous analysis of network traffic by modern firewalls holds great promise. They equip telecom players with the much-needed confidence to partner with other businesses for their digital ambitions.

Platforms like the GTS Armour offer protection against high-end security threats like identity fraud. There is a combination of techniques that firewalls use. Some include robo-calling, interconnect fraud prevention guards, virtual machine fraud detection, etc. Such firewall solutions offer peace of mind for telecom players as they seek to expand their business partnership ecosystem. Through powerful contextual analysis such AI-powered firewall solutions can easily identify and block fraudulent or suspicious text messages way before they are delivered to end users.

Telecom companies are perceived as a foundational element of modern digital experiences. Securing their operations is of primal importance for telecom businesses. Investing in state-of-the-art firewall solutions like Armour helps telecom companies improve their trust credentials in the market with proven security. Get in touch with us to learn more about revamping firewall security in your telecom business with the GTS Armour firewall.

Top Five Frauds The Telecom Industry Has To Deal With – 2023 Edition

The telecom industry is innovating rapidly.

PWC reports that over 200 telecom companies had already launched 5G networks by the beginning of 2023. It further predicted that 50% of global telecom connections would be 5G by 2025. It is further expected to increase to 75% by 2027.

This year, the telecom industry has also ramped up the focus on AI and IoT and increased attention paid to cybersecurity.

While the constant focus is on improving connectivity and security, the telecom industry is also witnessing an increase in telecom fraud.

Telecoms are losing billions to frauds like Robocalls and SIM Box, impacting profits and customer trust.

Let’s look at these frauds that have kept the industry on edge and find out how they can tackle them.

Top Five Frauds That Telecom Industry Is Dealing With In 2023

Vishing scams

Vishing scams rose by 550% in 2022.

In vishing attacks, scammers use AI to clone voices to sound trustworthy. They use call ID spoofing to make the call look reliable. They call and impersonate a government agency representative or a relative and deceive the users into sharing personal details like credit cards and social security numbers. The scammers specifically target the elderly population as they are the most vulnerable group. According to the Cybercrime Support Network, 38% of the reports submitted to the FTC were by users aged 80+.

While users are expected to exercise while receiving voice calls, telecom companies must invest in technologies to prevent it. Technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) can help companies detect and prevent fraudulent activities in voice calls.

Impersonating SMS Frauds

Like impersonating calls, people are also falling prey to SMS impersonation. This is especially a concerning scam in the banking industry. According to a 2019 report, there has been a twentyfold increase in text fraud in the coming years, and the trends seem to bear that out. Here’s how it typically works. A user receives a text with a link from a fake bank number. When they click on the link, they receive a call from the alleged bank.

The caller asks for sensitive information. The user eventually loses money if they share sensitive information with the caller. SMS fraud through impersonation has led to a median loss of $3,000 last year.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has directed mobile operators to block robotexts and prevent scams. Mobile operators can use AI/ML or blockchain solutions to reduce fraud and safeguard customers from losing money.

SIM Box Frauds

In SIM Box Fraud, a SIM Box device routes international calls as local calls. This helps the fraudsters avoid paying the higher international call rates and earn profits. Since the calls get routed, telecom companies lose revenue from the international calls. Additionally, the routing leads to unprecedented traffic on mobile networks and poor customer service quality.

Telecom companies can solve this problem by monitoring network traffic for unusual activities and blocking or filtering calls that display patterns that are different from the usual. Companies must also develop new solutions that can help them detect and prevent fraud. They must also cooperate with law enforcement agencies and share regular information to thwart all routing fraud attempts.

International Revenue Share Fraud (IRSF)

IRSF fraud has been a threat for many years. However, reports suggest that it has significantly increased in the past decade. These scams involve scammers pumping traffic to premium-rate international numbers. It affects the revenue-sharing agreements and the bottom line of telecom operators globally.

Telecoms can use firewall solutions to identify and prevent fraud from local and international markets.

SMS Grey Routes

Like artificially inflated calls, scammers are also using grey or unauthorized routes to bypass internationally approved routes and deliver SMS to users. They avoid paying the termination fees to mobile network operators (MNOs), resulting in unnecessary losses.

Operators can combat this issue by implementing solutions like:

Monitoring traffic to identify and prevent grey route activities
Implementing SMS firewalls to block messages originating from grey routes
Collaborating with other MNOs to blacklist potential grey routes and take action against malicious actors

These combined efforts can help operators reduce losses and safeguard their integrity.

How Can the Telecom Industry Combat Frauds?

As frauds increase, 92% of carriers have started prioritizing them to protect customers and safeguard their reputations.

Some telecom companies have started using blockchain for subscriber authentication, detecting roaming fraud, and blocking stolen devices. A few others are using flash calls as a part of two-factor authentication to reduce dependency on One-time Passwords (OTP).

Technologies like AI/ML are helping telecom companies detect and prevent fraud in real-time.

As frauds become more sophisticated, telecom companies must replace reactive and traditional fraud detection systems with proactive ones.

They must invest in anti-fraud solutions that cover various aspects of telecom fraud.

At Globe Teleservices, we have built solutions that help enterprises and telecom operators prevent voice, SMS, and network traffic frauds, allowing them to preserve revenues and maintain customer experience.

To know more about these solutions that can help telecom companies prevent fraud, contact us.

How Can Telecom Companies Explore New Frontiers With Blockchain

The telecom industry is widely regarded as one of the key enablers of today’s digital economy. From connecting people to empowering consumer applications through a host of services, the industry plays a vital role in streamlining digital experiences. In fact, several businesses actively consider the health of telecom networks in different regions before prioritizing their digital service spending for that region.

However, the sector is not immune to challenges. Today more businesses and consumers are relying on the telecom sector to build the foundations of new digital experiences. Hence, it is imperative for industry leaders to find innovative and quick solutions for pressing concerns. The pain areas that need attention are fraud, network availability and performance, service experience, and cost efficiency.

As with any other sector, the telecom industry has increased its bets on emerging technology solutions like blockchain to eliminate these challenges and spearhead innovation. The ability of blockchain to hold data without being tampered provides immense opportunities for the telecom sector. From automation of billing to traceability of transactions, the potential outcomes are too good for major telecom players to ignore.

The emergence of blockchain

One of the most promising trends in this regard is the rising popularity of blockchain and its uses in telecom. Studies estimate that the market for blockchain in the telecom sector will surpass USD 14.8 billion by 2030.

Let us explore the top areas where blockchain technology promises to become a huge asset for telecom companies:

Data Security

It is estimated that nearly 9.7 million petabytes of data will be consumed over telecom networks globally by 2027. With so much traffic flowing through their infrastructure, telecom players need more strategic and fault-proof security measures to prevent risks from manifesting in the operations.

Blockchain can be a major influence in this area. Using blockchain’s inherent strengths in encryption and decentralized data management, telecom networks can build autonomous data-sharing funnels to enable secure data transmission. Our very own TxtChain platform utilizes the immutability and decentralization capabilities of blockchain to secure data. Data from users, MNOs, and other entities cannot be tampered in any way without leaving a trace.

Prevent Identity Fraud

Studies have found that in 2021, the telecom sector lost USD 6.69 billion due to fraud. Fraud hurts the revenues of telecom companies by opening up unauthorized routes and parallel networks that “steal” traffic. These fraudulent practices and hackers operating in the telecom space also often trick innocent victims and gain access to their secure credentials like a business phone number. In other cases, subscription services to apps linked to their phone numbers may also be hacked.

The underlying root cause here is the ability of hackers to manipulate identities illegally. With blockchain, telecom companies can arrest the use of synthetic identities that were created with falsified credentials. Ownership of mobile numbers can be easily established when telecom providers leverage a tamper-proof decentralized ledger for storing user details corresponding to each number allotted in their spectrum. This is exactly what our TxtChain platform does by ensuring that mission-critical data is stored in immutable distributed blockchain ledgers.

By using a decentralized verification process, it becomes easier for consumers to protect their credentials. It can further streamline user authentication across a range of services that are dependent on a customer’s identity linked to their mobile number. This also enhances the onboarding and user authentication process by providing a more modern and seamless experience.

Device Identity Verification

We have seen how the identities of customers linked to their mobile numbers can be a source of vulnerability for hackers to exploit. Today, even devices used by customers are potential targets. And we are not just talking about mobile phones. From televisions to refrigerators and even curtain blinds, the number of devices connecting to the internet via telecom networks is exponentially higher than used to be the case.

Blockchain is a tool that telecom operators can use to bring an additional layer of security and transparency to device management. By storing authentication insights and credentials on the blockchain, it is easier to prevent forced attacks on the network without proper authentication by the actual device user. Also, usage patterns can be autonomously analyzed to see if credentials have been tampered with as all authentication happens via blockchain. As we move into the realms of 5G connectivity, such device management capabilities will help telecom players fuel the growth of IoT-enabled devices.

Stakeholder Registration and Consent Management

One of the most painstaking tasks telecom players must face is maintaining transparency in committed plans for customers. Depending on usage patterns, different customers may subscribe to various data or call plans and packages. However, complaints about plan misfits or erroneous billing are common from customers. Additionally, there are avenues where customers are often bombarded with commercial messages. These could be from services that they have not given their consent to contact. This is a serious issue as it impacts the trust and credibility of the provider.

With blockchain, it is easy to set up smart contracts that capture the right set of user preferences. Be it data privileges, call benefits, consent to promotional or commercial messages, usage terms, or roaming charges, every aspect of a user plan can be captured and recorded in a smart contract. It can be used for autonomously executing the billing and invoicing workflow of a customer. Unwanted commercial messages can be filtered out easily. Solution like our TxtChain collects consent info from customers and stores it on the blockchain. In the event of a commercial message being readied to be broadcasted, the system checks for each users consent preferences before shooting it out. It minimizes disputes and prevents tampering with plans and terms agreed upon with customers initially.

Summing It Up

Our CMD Ashutosh believes that if there are ways to minimize fraud and revenue leakages in the telecom sector with blockchain, then there is nothing stopping its adoption in the industry.

It will help telecom companies secure their networks, curtail malicious actions, and prevent leakages onto unauthorized networks. That could be a boon for fraud detection and prevention as well.

Combining this with the other benefits we have mentioned above shows blockchain’s position as a technology with immense potential in the telecom sector. Telecom companies need to have the right strategic approach in implementing blockchain solutions to maximize the impact. That includes planning for a resilient and reliable roadmap and execution strategy along with the right choice of skilled professionals, tools, and platforms like TxtChain. This is where a partner like GTS can make a huge impact. Get in touch with us to explore more.

Messaging – Latest Trends, Influences, And Technologies To Watch

Circa December 1992, a test engineer sent a Christmas greeting SMS to his colleague. That was the first SMS sent to someone ever. Since then, SMS has become one of the most widely used forms of communication. It remains popular and continues to grow despite being there for 30 years and the advent of different messaging apps like WhatsApp. Data Bridge Market Research shows that the SMS market will grow at a CAGR of 21.26% by 2030.

While SMS is widely known for person-to-person interactions, a staggering number of enterprises use application-to-person (A2P) messaging to interact with customers for an array of important applications. They send automated messages from applications to individuals to inform or promote new offers or send transactional messages, they use it to authenticate and onboard new customers and for several other reasons.

In fact, it is so effective that enterprise communication over SMS receives 20x more read rates and 30x more call-to-actions than Emails.

No wonder, the market size of A2P messaging is predicted to become $78.2 billion by 2028.

This popularity has led to enterprises experimenting with new forms of messaging for greater customer engagement, tighter security, and easier operations.

Here are a few trends enterprises must know to unlock the full potential of messaging.

Five Trends Of Messaging Enterprises And Mobile Operators Must Know

Customers “want” messages from enterprises

As customers become wary of the incessant barrage of app notifications, enterprises find SMS becoming even more effective in communicating with customers. They are non-intrusive and have a better response and open rates than emails and other forms of communication. Evidently, customers seem to prefer SMS messages. According to a survey, 42% of customers found messaging to be a non-intrusive form of communication with enterprises. 41% of customers thought it was a great way for enterprises to inform them about new offerings and opportunities.

As more customers and enterprises prefer messaging, businesses will continue to prioritize its use. One trend that’s likely to surge in the next year is enterprises using SMS for better lead generation and conversion.

AI-based SMS is coming

According to an Infosys survey, 78% of customers prefer purchasing from brands with offers targeted to their interests and preferences. It helps in increasing conversions and improving customer loyalty. But typically, enterprises use the spray-and-pray method while sending bulk SMS to customers. Such messages receive sub-optimal responses from customers. To improve open rates and conversions, enterprises will begin to personalize messages. AI-powered SMS can do that.

AI-driven SMS technologies analyze customer data and help enterprises send tailored messages to customers. For example, marketers can analyze a customer’s purchasing history and use AI to send cross-sell or upsell offers over SMS to them. This will enhance content relevance, customer engagement, and response rates.

SMS becomes a prime customer service channel

According to Gartner, 80% of customer service-focused enterprises will abandon native mobile apps in favor of messaging by 2025. No doubt, driven by the knowledge that most customers prefer using SMS and messaging apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp over service apps. Customers also find it more convenient than calling the customer service number.

Considering the customer’s preferences, enterprises and mobile operators will focus on using messaging to inform customers seeking service. SMS can be used to send reminders and follow-up messages to customers, get feedback, and send transactional messages in real-time.

Authentication services are the fastest-growing segment

With the rise in fraud, enterprises, and mobile operators have been relying on authentication services to prevent fraud. They authenticate the user’s credentials through two-factor authentication (2FA) or one-time password (OTP). This provides an additional security layer and establishes secure and reliable communication with the recipient. It reduces the risks of unauthorized access, prevents data loss, and provides a safe messaging experience to customers. The Banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector is one of the most active users of authentication services due to the sensitivity of transactions. Enterprises and mobile operators will invest more in authentication services to validate customers’ identities and secure data.

Conversational SMS is becoming popular

Although customers prefer messaging over calls, they find spam messages and one-way communication overwhelming. Sometimes, customers ignore messages where they see no scope for interaction. Conversational SMS can solve this problem. Conversational SMS mimics human conversations between people. Enterprises and mobile operators can use it to collect feedback, increase participation in quizzes, surveys, and polls, and improve engagement. It can also be used to authorize a customer’s identity.

The Growing Concerns In Messaging And How Can You Alleviate Them

The sustained popularity of SMS has also given rise to security concerns. Rising threats like grey routes and fake traffic bots erode mobile operators’ and enterprise revenue. Recently, Elon Musk revealed that X (earlier Twitter) was scammed and lost $60 million a year through SMS texts. Musk said X could ascribe about a third of its reported total losses in 2021 to these scams.

Only technologies like SMS firewalls, artificial intelligence, and machine learning (AI/ML) solutions can alleviate these issues.

At Globe Teleservices, we have been building A2P SMS communication solutions and products to help enterprises and mobile operations enhance security.

A2P SMS solutions, for instance, help enterprises and mobile operators enhance security, customer experience, and compliance.

Our products, like Armour, help mobile operators eliminate all types of SMS fraud originating from local and international market sources. It uses deep machine learning to prevent fraud like SIM farming, interconnect scams, and secure networks.

If messaging is your primary form of communication with customers, consider using these solutions. They will secure customer communication, protect revenue, and provide a great experience to your customers.