Maintaining an edge over competition, staying on track with ever-shifting customer needs and seeing steady revenue growth, can be hard in the fiercely competitive environment of telecoms. That is why the telecom industry needs to consider introducing new technologies into their business practices. One such promising technology that can give telecommunications business owners leverage in the industry is blockchain. Blockchain was created as a technology that brings trust where it does not exist. Currently, the telecommunications blockchain market is in its early stages, with only a few vendors having launched telecommunications blockchain solutions. Given the complex nature of blockchain and distributed ledger technology, it is clear that in order for it to succeed in the telecommunications industry, vendors will need to pool their knowledge of blockchain technology and the telecommunications industry. Bringing blockchain into play can create significant benefits and opportunities for a variety of telecommunications sectors. Some of these…
Europol, the European Union’s police agency, has published a report stating that telecoms fraud is costing over 29 billion Euros every year. The survey on cyber-telecom crime was conducted by Europol’s European cybercrime center (EC3) and cyber security specialist Trend Micro. This report underlines that telecom fraud is becoming a low-risk alternative to traditional financial crime, and due to the reduced cost and increased availability of hacking equipment, this type of fraud is on the rise. According to Europol, the most common methods of telecom fraud are vishing, where people are persuaded to disclose personal details, Wangiri, where people are tricked into calling back to expensive numbers, and international revenue sharing fraud (IRSF) that is claimed to be “the most damaging fraud scheme to date”. Describing IRSF, Europol stated: “It involves transferring monetary value from one carrier to another, based on the inter-carrier trust between telecom operators. Patient fraudsters…
Oculeus, an innovative telecommunications software provider from Germany, has announced the launch of a cloud-based fraud protection service. The new solution, branded with the name Oculeus-Protect, is designed to meet the growing needs for security in the enterprise telecoms industry. The new fraud protection service is supported by the company’s regional cloud environment, and is currently available throughout Europe, and North and South America. The software provider defines the new service as “a real-time telecoms fraud protection service that provides enterprises an intelligent and automated framework to efficiently prevent false charges resulting from unauthorized usage of enterprise telecommunication channels by cybercriminals and other perpetrators of telecom fraud”. They claim that the software is able of block fraudulent telecommunications traffic within milliseconds, and have positioned the service to be totally independent of user’s telecommunications service provider. “There is a clear and definite need for our new telecoms fraud protection service,”…
Last Wednesday, 225 Chinese nationals believed to be involved in a fake operation using Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) were arrested in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia. According to Y Sok Khy, director of the Interior Ministry’s anti-terrorism police department, the scammers were accused of stealing money from Chinese residents through a scheme using Internet voice call technology. The arrest occurred at an apartment building in Tuol Kok district’s Boeng Kak II commune at around 5 p.m, where all 225 apparently lived, and police are still searching for more suspects involved in the operation. Although Wang Dexin, head of the political section of the Chinese Embassy in Phnom Penh, declared that he was not aware of Wednesday’s arrest, Mr. Sok Khy confirms to have detained the 225 Chinese nationals at the anti-terrorism department, and that his team is now collecting their equipment, counting and questioning them. It looks like Southeast…