Optus parent Company Singtel whose network has failed twice in Australia is now moving to try and rescue their reputation with a new offering called SingVerify that is designed to verify people accessing their networks.
In September 2022, Optus, suffered a data breach, affecting up to 10 million current and former customers.
Information illegally obtained included names, birthdates, home addresses, phone numbers, email contacts, and passport and driving licence numbers all disappeared in the hack attack on their vulnerable network that also failed again in late 2023.
Singtel’s new development called SingVerify and based on the GSMA’s Open Gateway framework, uses the Number Verify API to enable an application to seamlessly carry out a check of who’s entering the network.
The new security measure come days after the head of the failed Optus/Singtel network in Australia, Lambo Kanagaratnam quit following last year’s national network outage, which lasted for hours and bought several Australian businesses to a standstill.
The new Singtel suite of solutions which could be branded OptusVerify, use APIs to automatically check digital identities stored by online services and platforms against data stored by the telco according to UK publication Telecoms.com.
The carrier plans to leverage additional APIs like device location to enhance the carrier’s fraud detection capabilities.
The move comes as several organisations such as retailers’ banks, subscription services move to rely on multi-factor authentication processes – like sending a one-time passcode to the phone number associated with an account – to guard against fraudulent activity.
“Phishing scams continue to impact many innocent people. In today’s digital economy, technology is pervasive, and we’d like our customers to be able to enjoy the benefits of a digital lifestyle safely. That’s why we launched SingVerify – a game-changing solution that’s eliminating complicated authentication methods yet protecting consumers,” said Singtel Singapore CEO Ng Tian Chong.
“By designing SingVerify according to the GSMA’s framework, this solution can be easily deployed by any service provider.
We’re confident that SingVerify will play a critical role in mitigating fraud in real-time, safeguarding critical customer data, and preventing potential financial losses for many consumers,” he said.
He has not said whether their Australian operation is adopting the new technology.
Management claim that with authentication and fraud detection high on the agenda for pretty much all enterprises, solutions like SingVerify are an obvious use case for network APIs.
It’s one that could not only generate some much-needed revenue but also serve as proof that this whole Open Gateway endeavour is worth the effort.
