CRII: SaTC: Techniques for Measuring and Characterizing Robocalls

自动电话(通常被称为“机器人电话”)，其目的可能从电话销售到彻头彻尾的欺诈，已经达到了流行的程度。虽然一些机器人通话具有社会用途，但也有很多被用于恶意目的。这尤其令人担忧，因为一些诈骗电话每年窃取数百万美元，往往来自包括老年人和新移民在内的弱势群体。像国家请勿打电话登记这样的政策机制未能有意义地阻止这些电话。尽管有明显的需求，但网络安全界目前缺乏必要的基础设施和技术来洞察这一问题的范围，这阻碍了有效解决方案的开发和科学验证。该项目旨在开发技术来表征和测量机器人呼叫，这将导致更好地防御最终用户的诈骗电话。该项目将开发一种新的基础设施来收集机器人通话。这一基础设施将促进开发新的技术，以衡量受害者行为对机器人呼叫者的影响，以及全面和系统地衡量机器人通话趋势，包括地理、网络和时间特征；常见的滥用趋势；欺骗率的测量；以及机器人通话运动的特征。这样的洞察力将导致更好地检测和预防这些电话。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Automated calls (often called "robocalls"), which may range in purpose from telemarketing to outright fraud, have reached epidemic proportions. While some robocalls are societally useful, there are plenty that are used for malicious purposes. This is particularly concerning because some scam calls steal millions of dollars annually, often from vulnerable populations including the elderly and recent immigrants. Policy mechanisms like the National Do Not Call Registry have failed to meaningfully stop these calls. Despite a clear need, the network security community currently lacks the infrastructure and techniques needed to provide insight into the scope of this problem, which prevents the development and scientific validation of effective solutions.This project is aimed at developing techniques to characterize and measure robocalls, which will lead to better defenses against scam calls for end users. The project will develop a new infrastructure to collect robocalls. This infrastructure will facilitate the development of new techniques to measure the impact of victim behaviors on robocallers, as well as comprehensive and systematic measurements of robocalling trends including geographic, network and temporal characteristics; common abuse trends; measurements of spoofing rates; and characterization of robocall campaigns. Such insights will lead to better detection and prevention of these calls.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.