First Orion: Stonewalling the Bad Guys with Verified Omnichannel Identity, Podcast

By Doug Green “There’s nothing that beats proactivity. If you can stop the problem before it happens, the amount of value saved is immense.” First Orion’s Josh Whitehurst, Head of Product, joins TR Publisher Doug Green to discuss why trusted communications now require more than simply authenticating a phone number. As voice, text and RCS increasingly converge, Whitehurst says businesses need to treat telephone numbers and messaging sender identities as valuable brand assets — much like websites, email domains and other digital properties. STIR/SHAKEN was an important first step, Whitehurst explains, because it helped determine whether a call was actually originating from the number it claimed to be using. But the industry is now moving “beyond STIR/SHAKEN” toward a broader trust framework that combines enterprise vetting, number-right-to-use verification, branded identity, analytics and end-to-end call authentication. First Orion’s approach can authenticate individual calls in real time by comparing an authoritative signal generated when an enterprise initiates a call with what ultimately arrives at the terminating carrier. When the signals match, the recipient can be shown verified branding, including the company name, logo and even a reason for the call. When they do not match, carriers can remove the branding — or potentially block the fraudulent call altogether. Whitehurst offers a striking example from a large financial institution. After First Orion’s technology was deployed, the company discovered that on some days 10% to 20% of calls appearing to come from the institution were actually impersonation attempts. The system was able to block roughly 100,000 to 200,000 fraudulent call events per month before those calls ever reached consumers. The conversation also explores how AI is raising the stakes. Scammers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, but Whitehurst notes that carriers and communications providers can use AI, predictive analytics and real-time detection on the defensive side as well. The larger goal is an omnichannel identity framework that lets consumers know who is really contacting them whether the interaction arrives by voice, text or another communications channel. For enterprises and SMBs, Whitehurst’s message is to start thinking differently about communications identity. Verified phone numbers and sender IDs should be managed and protected as part of the organization’s brand and security infrastructure. Learn more at FirstOrion.com.