Industry White Paper Addresses Rise of Fraudulent Mobile Account Takeover

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – March 23, 2017 – iconectiv, an authoritative partner of the global communications industry connecting more than two billion people every day, today released a timely industry white paper, Never Underestimate the Power of Identity, about fighting consumer fraud and the potentially devastating effects of account takeover by protecting the integrity of the phone number.
As detailed in the publication, the phone number is under attack today. Consumers receive calls and texts intended for the previous owner of their phone number, or receive spoofed calls from telemarketers and others misrepresenting themselves on their Caller ID display. Worst of all, messages that should be directed to customers of a financial institution, such as one-time passwords for authentication, are being diverted and picked up by fraudsters during “account takeovers.”

During an account takeover, one of the most serious fraud activities in the mobile industry, fraudsters use clever social engineering techniques to obtain a consumer’s phone number and port it to their device at a new service provider. Hackers then gain quick access to a consumer’s bank accounts, bitcoin, payment services and more by having login passwords sent to the newly ported phone number.  They then have the ability to steal financial assets and confidential information in minutes before the consumer or the institution ever finds out.

The paper contends that the optimum way to stop account takeovers is to use an identity verification system that instantly checks if a number has been recently ported, is in the process of being ported, or if the mobile device has changed for any other reason.  If so, organizations can halt any transactions and carry out further, more detailed, security checks before proceeding. 

“As the industry paper reports, the mobile number remains the primary way to authenticate users when consumers are using digital financial services,” said Chris Drake, Chief Technology Officer, iconectiv. “But once a fraudster has moved the phone number to their device, passwords can be easily procured while biometrics and other security hardware on the original device are, essentially, bypassed.”

“Currently, individual service provider data is unable to efficiently detect account takeover fraud because there is a lack of knowledge of what is happening on other networks with a different device that gets provisioned with the same phone number,” Drake said. “Access to cross-network information in a timely manner is the key to combating this type of mobile fraud, and would allow authentication through a consumer’s mobile identity to remain a powerfully simple yet effective version of multi-factor authentication.” 

iconectiv is uniquely positioned to lead the industry in halting mobile fraud and account takeover through mobile identity verification.  The company’s core competencies include highly scalable industry database management, numbering services (the company will soon serve as the Local Number Portability Administrator for the FCC), third-party authentication and network fraud prevention for the telecommunications industry.  iconectiv has embarked on an aggressive company strategy to restore integrity to the personal telephone number and re-establish it as a trusted identity for communications in the digital economy.
 
About iconectiv

At iconectiv, we envision a world without boundaries, where the ability to access and exchange information is simple, seamless and secure. As the authoritative partner of the communications industry for more than 30 years, iconectiv realizes this vision for more than two billion people every day by providing market-leading solutions that enable the interconnection of networks, devices, and applications. Working closely with private, government and non-governmental organizations, iconectiv continues to protect and secure telecommunication infrastructures for service providers, governments and enterprises, while providing network and operations management, numbering, registry, messaging and fraud and identity solutions to more than 1,200 organizations globally. 

A US-based company, Telcordia Technologies, doing business as iconectiv, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ericsson. For more information, visit www.iconectiv.com.

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Media Contact:
Sharon Oddy
iconectiv
+1-732-699-5130/908-809-2268
soddy@iconectiv.com

Lora Wilson/Gabe Uribe
Global Results Communications
+1-949-608-0276
iconectiv@globalresultspr.com