RE: Should FCC look at SS7 vulnerabilities or BGP vulnerabilities

[Jason Baugher <jasonbaugher () adamstel com>]

John Levine said:

> It appears that Brandon Martin <lists.nanog () monmotha net> said:
> > I think the issue with their lack of effectiveness on spam calls is due
> > to the comparatively small number of players in the PSTN (speaking of
> > both classic TDM and modern IP voice-carrying and signaling networks)
> > world allowing lots of regulatory capture.

> It's the opposite. SS7 was designed for a world with a handful of large trustworthy telcos. But now that we have 
> VoIP, it's a world of a zillion sleasy little VoIP carriers stuffing junk into the network.
> The real telcos have no desire to deliver spam calls. Everything is bill and keep so they get no revenue and a lot of 
> complaints.

> Mike is right that STIR/SHAKEN is more complex than it needs to be but even after it was widely deployed, the telcos 
> had to argue with the FCC to change the rules so they were allowed to drop spam calls which only changed > recently. 
> That's why you see PROBABLE SPAM rather than just not getting the call.

STIR/SHAKEN is more complex than it needs to be, sure, but for the time being it's effectively broken anyway. If you're 
in an area where you have to connect to an ancient TDM-only LATA tandem, even though you'd like to do STIR/SHAKEN, it 
can't be done over an SS7 call. The call gets to the terminating carrier, who decides in their infinite wisdom that 
since it's not signed, to tell their customer it's SPAM-LIKELY. Well, that's helpful. STIR/SHAKEN implementation 
deadlines should have started at the core of the PSTN - transit and tandems - and moved out towards the edge. Instead 
it started at the edge, we all got complaint, and we still can't deliver calls because the core of the PSTN is lagging.

Jason Baugher, Network Operations Manager
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