Good news from The Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Telephone service providers will be legally able to block automated phone calls, commonly known as robocalls. The new rules enable telephone service providers to block robocalls before they get to our phones. This includes calls from phone numbers on a Do-Not-Originate (DNO) list and those numbers that show up in Caller ID that are “invalid, unallocated, or unused numbers,” also known as “spoofed” calls.
It’s not for lack of trying. Some phone providers have tried different techniques to block unwanted calls for years. There are the wire-line No Solicitation services. Last year Google added a spoofed caller warning to Android One and Nexus phone offerings. And there are services such as NoMoreRobo.
The biggest question is how will call blocking services be rolled out? I don’t believe they are likely to be free services, but a phone service feature that will carry a monthly fee. So this is not going to be an instant panacea by any means. Perhaps lobbying your state Public Utilities Commission could get call blocking added as a free feature. I guess we’ll see.
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About the Author:
I am a cybersecurity and IT instructor, cybersecurity analyst, pen-tester, trainer, and speaker. I am an owner of the WyzCo Group Inc. In addition to consulting on security products and services, I also conduct security audits, compliance audits, vulnerability assessments and penetration tests. I also teach Cybersecurity Awareness Training classes. I work as an information technology and cybersecurity instructor for several training and certification organizations. I have worked in corporate, military, government, and workforce development training environments I am a frequent speaker at professional conferences such as the Minnesota Bloggers Conference, Secure360 Security Conference in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, the (ISC)2 World Congress 2016, and the ISSA International Conference 2017, and many local community organizations, including Chambers of Commerce, SCORE, and several school districts. I have been blogging on cybersecurity since 2006 at http://wyzguyscybersecurity.com