Robocalling

Robocalling is automated outbound calling at scale, used legitimately for notifications and reminders, and abusively for spam, fraud, and scams that often combine spoofed caller-ID. STIR/SHAKEN attestation and analytics-driven call-blocking by carriers are the dominant defences in the US; many other markets are following with similar regulatory mandates.

Categories: Identity and SubscriberThreats and AttacksFraud

Robocalling in context

Subscriber identifiers (IMSI, SUPI, MSISDN, IMEI) are the anchor for authentication, charging, lawful interception and fraud analytics. Any protocol or interface that leaks a permanent identifier is treated as a serious privacy defect, which is why 5G introduced SUCI concealment on the air interface.

Telecom threats range from opportunistic SMS phishing and SIM swap to nation-state grade location tracking and lawful-interception abuse. The common thread is that most attacks exploit the inherited trust model of legacy signaling. SS7 and Diameter were designed for a closed operator community that no longer exists.

To place Robocalling in the wider telecom-security picture, review Artificial Traffic Inflation, Exfiltration, Refile Fraud, CLI Spoofing, Event Logging and Firmware.

Related terms

Related topic hubs

More from the TelcoSec Glossary

Browse the full TelcoSec Glossary, the Ultimate Guide to Mobile Network Security, or the P1 Arsenal of telecom-security tools.