WASHINGTON and Ottawa, Ontario – To advance industry’s battle against illegal robocalling, the Secure Telephone Identity Governance Authority (STI-GA) and the Canadian Secure Token Governance Authority (CST-GA) today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to coordinate efforts. The MoU covers interconnection of the Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs (SHAKEN) systems in both the U.S. and Canada so that providers can more easily sign calls in one country and have the signature accepted in the other. It will further allow the two governance authorities to coordinate enforcement to ensure SHAKEN framework participants are operating within boundaries of the SHAKEN standards and policies.
“As the first two countries to implement STIR/SHAKEN, cross-border collaboration is critical to maintaining an effective, secure ecosystem,” said Jacques Sarrazin, President & CEO, CST-GA.
“The companies responsible for illegal robocalling and caller ID spoofing do not stop their efforts at national borders and industry efforts to combat them will not either,” said Linda Vandeloop, STI-GA Chair.
The agreement between the Governance Authorities in Canada and the U.S. will serve as a model for other countries that choose to implement SHAKEN and, similarly, wish to coordinate their efforts to combat robocalls with the industries in Canada and the U.S.
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About the Secure Telephone Identity Governance Authority
The Secure Telephone Identity Governance Authority (STI-GA) is the industry-led effort to support the timely deployment of the STIR/SHAKEN protocol and framework. The STI-GA Board consists of representatives from the following stakeholders:
- Chair – Linda Vandeloop, AT&T
- Vice Chair – Glenn Clepper, Charter Communications; appointed by NCTA – The Internet & Television Association
- Clinton Lee, Jackson Energy Authority; appointed by the America’s Communications Association
- Nathan Sutter, Nex-Tech Wireless; appointed by the Competitive Carriers Association
- Indra Chalk, T-Mobile; appointed by CTIA
- Greg Rogers, Bandwidth; appointed by INCOMPAS
- Dave Frigen, Wabash Communications; appointed by NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association
- Philip Linse, Lumen; appointed by US Telecom
- Gunnar Halley, Microsoft; appointed by the VON Coalition
- Michael Starkey, QSI Consulting, Inc.; appointed by Western Telecommunications Alliance and TEXALTEL
- Beth O’Donnell, Comcast
- Darah Franklin, Google
Learn more about the work of the STI-GA at sti-ga.atis.orgThe STI-GA operates under the auspices of ATIS.
About the Canadian Secure Token Governance Authority
The Canadian Secure Token – Governance Authority (CST-GA) is mandated by the CRTC to direct and oversee the STIR/SHAKEN Policy Administrator and Certification Authorities for Canada. Established by a group of Canadian telecommunications carriers, the CST-GA develops policies and supports industry protocols and operational procedures to authenticate telephone calls and mitigate spoofing and illegal robocalling.
Learn more about CST-GA at www.cstga.ca.
