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posted by martyb on Saturday August 24 2019, @09:54AM   Printer-friendly
from the ANI-port-in-a-storm? dept.

Phone companies and state attorneys general join forces to fight robocalls

US consumers receive as many as 350,000 unwanted calls every three minutes, according to the FCC. Despite multiple efforts to end the onslaught, an estimated 4.7 billion robocalls hit American phones in July alone. Now, attorneys general from all 50 states and the District of Columbia are teaming up with 12 carriers in a united effort to prevent and block the spam calls.

Under the new agreement, the carriers will implement call-blocking technology, make anti-robocall tools free to consumers and deploy a system that labels calls as legitimate or spam, The Washington Post reports. The companies also agree to aid investigations by law enforcement. The major players -- AT&T, Comcast, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon (Engadget's parent company) -- are on board, as well as smaller carriers -- Bandwidth, CenturyLink, Charter, Consolidated, Frontier, US Cellular and Windstream. Though, there's no deadline for the companies to implement these measures.


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  • (Score: 2) by edIII on Sunday August 25 2019, @04:53AM

    by edIII (791) on Sunday August 25 2019, @04:53AM (#885072)

    So, all your calls are routed to the police station... Tapping the line is so much easier now.

    That ship sailed [wired.com] so long ago. The FBI attacked the telecom industry a long time ago to go around the enforcement departments that existed at the time. A telephone wiretap did require a warrant, and the telecoms actually enforced the law. This was no longer acceptable to the FBI and they were pushing for an honor based system where they just had access period. This is why Ma' Bell was broken up as a monopoloy, the real behind the scenes reason. This threw the telecoms into some disorganization (Golden years of Phreaking), and the FBI got it what it wanted. This was roughly at the same time of the failed Clipper Chip initiative that would've gave them backdoor access to all modems. The Internet has really given them some problems though, and also made some things very easier. SS7 used a telephone protocol across networks made one thing fantastically easier, and that was collection of phone call data. Just tap at the level 1 networks, the really big pipes or "arteries" of the Internet. This is that famed NSA room.

    Now all PSTN telephone phone calls pass through these mediation switches at some point. It is being collected as we speak. Theoretically, it should only be accessed if there is a direct need. In practice, there is mass surveillance. They've been deep dicking you all along. Sorry, buddy. The only thing they don't have a full handle on are communication apps that use the Internet. The moment they were poised for domination, our technology radically evolved before their eyes :)

    Anyhoo, I think what they mean here is that the telephone companies are going to be more responsive to the local police departments. That will translate into actually making it a lot easier to trace the traffic back. Usually, each hop of that traffic has their own lawyers and a default setting of "fuck off". Now what I imagine is that you will trace back to Company A and they will happily lead you to Company B, which leads you to Company X that is exchanging packets with a final VoIP provider, or the malicious actors themselves. If they all cooperate, you could rebuild the entire signalling path. This could result in VoIP companies terminating service for TOS violations because it indirectly addresses spoofing too. That cooperation allows us to demask people trying to cover themselves too.

    If the cop is just is rebuilding and verifying the signalling path, it's not the same as a tap. They're just establishing who actually talked to who, which customers and companies were involved. That can aid in prosecution of harassing phone calls, and at least tracing a lot of the SPAM shit back to where it leaves the U.S. I would be very surprised if they actually keep domestic call centers.

    There could be some real promise this time if the telecoms actually cooperate with each other and investigators.

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