COAI statement on ‘Need to Address Spam Calls and Messages’

Lt. Gen. Dr. S.P. Kochhar, Director General, COAI

In a statement on the need to address Spam calls and messages, Lt. Gen. Dr. S.P. Kochhar, Director General, COAI, said, “COAI welcomes the decision of MeitY to take the lead to engage with stakeholders to tackle spam and scam from Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms, as conveyed during the meeting of the Joint Committee of Regulators (JCoR). This action by MeitY, apparently recognizes the trend of the nuisance of Spam and Scam calls increasingly shifting to the OTT platforms, especially with the robust measures being undertaken for Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC) by DoT along with the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) over the telecom networks.

The Government has now given indication that applications running over the networks need to be controlled by the respective line ministries, rather than appointing the blame and further consequences like penalties, etc. to the TSPs.

An example in this regard can be given of a number issued by a TSP to a subscriber, for which the TSP is fully responsible and can provide all legal assistance, if required, by the legal enforcement agencies. However, in this same example, there could be instances whereby an OTT Communication Application used on the same number, may be utilised in another handset of the user, and carried beyond the limits of a city/state, and may be used for illegal purposes. Here again, while the telecom number can only be traced to the city where the mobile is residing, there are no ways to trace the activities of the OTT Communication App which was initially issued on the mobile number, but is now running off a separate handset, while the SIM is on a different handset. This happens because the App and the SIM are not tightly bound together after the installation of the App.

Moreover, the issue of Steganography or the practice of concealing messages or information within other messages or objects is another issue which requires attention, as it makes the presence of the hidden message difficult to detect, thereby encouraging frauds. In this way, attackers can embed malicious code or scripts within seemingly harmless files, such as images or documents, to infect systems. This is a serious issue which needs to be looked at.

COAI feels that the cybersecurity measures need to be reinforced with clear outlines on the purpose, which is to free the people of such unwanted spam/fraud calls and messages to the maximum extent possible. For the same purpose, it may be judicious that similar cybersecurity and regulatory rules govern all the necessary players, such as TSPs or OTT Communication Applications. This can be the only way to provide relief to the people from such menace.”