Ericsson and Hiya develop new system to combat spam and fraud

Kit vendor Ericsson and has teamed up with ‘call performance management cloud’ firm Hiya to build Call Qualification, an AI based tool to help operators identify incoming spam and fraud calls.

Call Qualification lets operators spot incoming dodgy calls attempting to connect to their subscriber base at the network level and block the it before it gets through, we are told, while ‘Intelligent learning capabilities’ mean the platform will constantly be kept up to date with spam, scam and fraud caller details.

It does this by integrating Ericsson’s IP Multimedia System – a virtual and cloud-native network function system – with Hiya’s call protection solution, Hiya Protect. The solution will also work for Ericsson’s Mobile Switching System, for those wondering, and it has been set up so any CSP already using Ericsson IMS can simply turn the new protections on.

It’s all based on Hiya’s ‘adaptive AI self-learning technology’ and following trials the first live customer deployments of the system are expected later this year.

“Spam, fraud and nuisance calls are a frustration that almost every person with a phone can relate to,” said David Bjore, Head of Solution Area Communication Services at Ericsson. “It is certainly an area that is likely to positively impact subscriber satisfaction and customer loyalty if they can be stopped. That’s exactly what we, in partnership with Hiya, are aiming for CSPs to achieve with Call Qualification.”

Alex Algard, CEO and founder at Hiya added: “Spam and fraud calls are a huge problem for both individuals and businesses – and it’s only getting worse as the bad actors making these calls get more sophisticated in their tactics. Through our partnership with Ericsson, CSPs can instantly access and deploy Hiya’s most advanced, AI-powered call protection features worldwide, giving subscribers a superior voice call experience and more trust in the network.”

According to Hiya’s 2022 State of the Call Report spam and fraud increased 13% globally in 2022, and mobile subscribers are receiving an average of 14 unwanted calls per month. Its not alone in clocking an uptick in the amount of fraud calls or cyber crime in general this year (check out our interview with LogRhythm on what a doomsday scenario cyber stack on the UK looks like), and particularly since the invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile UK operator EE recently deployed a similar system to Ericsson and Hiya’s platform – a new type of firewall technology which uses AI to review calls passing through UK Calling Line Identification from other countries, and blocks those pretending to be based in the UK – an indicator that there’s a fraudster on the other end of the line.

So there’s a fair bit of teching up going on at the moment in the telecoms sector in response to an increase is fraudsters looking to scam its customers. And this in turn will no doubt lead to more sophisticated attacks and scams in the future – such is the never ending arms race that defines the security sector.

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