The Communications Risk Show Commsrisk

Divya Shridhar, an independent consultant who was formerly a rapidly-rising analytics and assurance manager with BT and Tech Mahindra, gives an interview about how to impress executives with insights gleaned from data, the ways she has overcome adversity in her personal life, and whether new technology will create new ways of finding revenue opportunities and cost savings.



Topical news items are also debated by the show’s three regular presenters, industry analyst Ed Finegold, senior risk executive Lee Scargall, and the Editor of Commsrisk, Eric Priezkalns.



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Quantum computers are difficult to build today, but their radically different design means they can rapidly crack encryption codes that would defeat any other computer. Many encryption algorithms that currently protect the privacy of electronic comms and banking transactions will soon be rendered ineffective. Comms providers already need to be conscious of the risks of messages being intercepted today just so they can be decrypted and exploited in future. We discuss the timescales for the evolution of quantum computing and the enhanced security measures already needed to protect our way of life with Ian Deakin, Principal Technologist at the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS).

Topical news items are also debated by the show’s presenters: Lee Scargall, a senior risk executive and consultant with considerable international experience; Eric Priezkalns, Editor of Commsrisk; and Sarah Delphey, formerly of Bandwidth and now VP of Trust Solutions at Numeracle.

Brazilians receive more unwanted calls than any other nationality. We discuss the reasons why with representatives of the Brazilian comms regulator, Anatel, before examining their radical plan to restore confidence in telemarketing calls.



Topical news items are also debated by the show’s three regular presenters, industry analyst Ed Finegold, senior risk executive Lee Scargall, and the Editor of Commsrisk, Eric Priezkalns.

It is highly recommended that every network operator protects their security by having a signaling firewall, but some still suffer from lots of gaps in their defences. We discuss the reasons why comms providers fail to get comprehensive protection from their signaling firewalls with network security blogger Josué Martins, currently of Accenture and previously with Unitel and Samsung.



Topical news items are also debated by the show’s three regular presenters, industry analyst Ed Finegold, senior risk executive Lee Scargall, and the Editor of Commsrisk, Eric Priezkalns.

Consumers in some countries are inundated with scam and spam calls from overseas, many of which are spoofed to appear domestic in origin. The lack of integrity surrounding the apparent A-number of a call also means carriers get hit with refiling frauds. However, there is almost no international cooperation on how to tackle this phenomenon, and technologies which promised to validate calls across borders have delivered woeful results on the few occasions they have been tried. This is a problem for all telcos, but international carriers are especially concerned about the dangers of having to satisfy many contradictory rules and regulations from the different countries they serve. In this episode, Philippe Millet, Chair of the i3forum and previously a long-serving executive at Orange Group, joins us to talk about the launch of One Consortium, a new initiative that seeks to bring carriers and regulators together so they can agree a common roadmap for call validation.



Topical news items are also debated by the show’s three regular presenters, industry analyst Ed Finegold, senior risk executive Lee Scargall, and the Editor of Commsrisk, Eric Priezkalns.

The first episode in the second series of The Communications Risk Show begins with a review of dramatic news stories that affected the communications industry during the break between seasons. And there has been a lot of drama! Examples include: Ireland rejecting STIR/SHAKEN; Ukraine police claiming to have confiscated hundreds of simboxes used to distribute propaganda; the hacking of cloud servers used by a Russian satellite comms provider; the US Cyber Safety Review Board wanting an ‘urgent’ transition away from sending passwords by SMS and voice; India launching a powerful unified consumer consent system for telemarketing; security vulnerabilities found in a comms system used by police forces worldwide; big analytics firms denounced for profiting from inaccurate call labels; opposition to a UK law that would interfere with end-to-end encryption; China accused of using eSIMs to secretly track the movements of the British Primeminister’s car; Islamists launching denial of service attacks on networks and mobile money in Nigeria and Kenya; the founder of Global Voice Group being barred from the USA; and a legal complaint from European privacy activists that could prevent US businesses developing databases that record the ‘reputation’ of individual phone numbers. These topics and any questions from the live audience are debated by the show’s three regular presenters, industry analyst Ed Finegold, senior risk executive Lee Scargall, and the Editor of Commsrisk, Eric Priezkalns.