Security News > 2021 > March > India pauses blockchain-powered SMS spam-scrubber after it swallows people's one-time login codes

India's Telecom Regulatory Authority has paused the rollout of a national SMS "Scrubbing" service and blamed business for the delay.

The authority, aka TRAI, introduced the scrubbing service to curb text spam in India, where mobile phone users can expect a couple of unsolicited messages every day according to spam-blocking app Truecaller.

India's solution to the scourge is a regime that requires senders of bulk messages register with carriers and TRAI, which operates a blockchain-based application that looks for unexpected messages in transit and scrubs them before they reach networks or users.

The watchdog said the problem came because carriers and SMS issuers haven't done their paperwork.

Whatever the cause, the problem is affecting citizens in unpleasant ways: chiefly, people's one-time authentication codes to log into services aren't getting through, locking people out of online banking and so on.

The Register understands that the SMS scrubber is an extension of an Azure-blockchain-powered application developed by Tech Mahindra that has already been deployed, with decent success, to block spam calls.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/03/10/india_sms_blocking_mess/