AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint Team Up to Create New Mobile Authentication Platform

[Maura]

9to5 Mac reports that the Mobile Authentication Taskforce, comprising AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint, has today announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona its “next-generation mobile authentication platform.”

The Mobile Authentication Taskforce was created last year to develop a mobile authentication system in order to help protect businesses and consumers from identity theft, bank fraud, fraudulent purchases, and data theft.

“As mobile becomes the remote control for day-to-day life, mobile identity is key to making things simpler and more secure for consumers,” said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer, GSMA. “The GSMA has been working with operators around the world to bring a consistent and interoperable, secure identity service and this taskforce will strengthen that effort by enabling a simple user experience quickly and conveniently in the US market.”

The Mobile Authentication Taskforce says that the new secure solution will use a cryptographically verified phone number and profile data for users of authorized applications with consent. The system will strengthen authenticated security by processing unique attributes such as a network verified mobile number, IP address, SIM card attributes, phone number tenure, phone account type and much more. Added to all that will be advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities, which will be used to help assess risk and protect customers.

The taskforce says that it will commence internal trials to test the solution over the next few weeks, with the aim of making it available to consumers by the end of the year.

Sources: AT&T, Major US carriers working together on next-gen ‘mobile authentication platform’ to replace weak SMS system