CAREER: Increasing Trust and Reducing Abuse in Telephone Networks

未经请求的电话，也被称为机器人通话，是美国最普遍、最明显的网络安全问题之一。尽管电话提供商、监管机构、立法者和技术专家做出了真诚的努力，但几乎没有始终如一的有效对策。该项目的创新之处在于创造了技术解决方案，使监管机构和提供商能够阻止大规模的机器人通话。该项目的更广泛的意义和重要性在于显著提高电话网络的安全性和可信度，并通过这样做恢复电话网络作为有用的通信媒介。这项工作的目标是通过创造新的技术来检测滥用行为者来结束未经请求的电话的祸害，通过积极地认证所有电话来恢复对电话的信任，并防止可能导致机器人电话滥用的互联网语音基础设施的损害。主要方法包括开发威胁情报、设计安全和隐私保护协议、进行互联网范围的测量和通话音频分析。该项目还在为网络安全课程开发公共信息活动、操作员和监管人员培训以及电话安全内容。该奖项反映了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。

Unsolicited phone calls, also known as robocalls, are one of the most pervasive and visible network security problems in the United States. Despite the sincere efforts of telephone providers, regulators, legislators, and technologists, there are virtually no consistently effective countermeasures. The project’s novelties are in creating technical solutions that will empower regulators and providers to stop robocalling at scale. The project's broader significance and importance lie in dramatically improving the security and trustworthiness of the telephone network and, in so doing, restoring the telephone network as a useful communications medium.The goal of this work is to end the scourge of unsolicited phone calls by creating new techniques to detect abusive actors, restore trust in telephony by positively authenticating all phone calls, and prevent compromises of Internet voice infrastructure that would enable robocall abuse. The principal methodologies include developing threat intelligence, designing secure and privacy-preserving protocols, conducting Internet-scale measurement, and call audio analysis. This project is also developing public information campaigns, operator and regulator training, and telephone security content for network security courses.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.