Spain's leading operators - Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone - today announced the launch of two new services designed to help developers tackle online fraud and protect the digital identities of telephone customers.
The technology on which these programs are based is Open Gateway, presented a year ago by GSM within the framework of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The one presented today is the first real example in Europe of the global initiative and consists of the launch of two network API (Application Programmable Interface) services focused on improving digital security: Number Verification and SIM Swap.
These APIs will enable teams of developers and partners to create new intelligent layers of authentication, verification and security for customers within mobile networks.
This will help businesses, as well as financial institutions and online commerce entities, address identity fraud by improving user authentication and security.
"This is a commitment to the universification of technology that will allow developers to advance more quickly in all the new developments linked to cybersecurity and not have to be aware of which operator is their end client," explained Javier Pascual, director of B"B marketing, pre-sales and deployment of Telefónica Spain.
These new services will be available in the Spanish market starting at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), which will be held in Barcelona from February 26 to 29. Two months after the first APIS with Open Gateway technology were launched in Brazil worldwide.
The initiative responds to a social demand since, according to recent data from the Ministry of the Interior, reported cases of cybercrime increased by 72% in 2022 compared to 2019; and almost 90% of them are related to online fraud. Cybercrime currently represents around a fifth of all crimes recorded in Spain.
For interested end clients, such as banks, online stores, etc. The simplest thing is that each of them can access the developer, the API supermarket that Microsoft has, or develop it internally... We are not limiting any business model. That is still to be defined. The only objective is that the developers can move forward and then each one can define their final agreement according to the companies that reach those agreements," explains Pascual.
According to recent data from the Ministry of the Interior, reported cases of cybercrime increased by 72% in 2022 compared to 2019; and almost 90% of them are related to online fraud. Cybercrime currently represents around a fifth of all crimes recorded in Spain.
Launched a year ago at MWC Barcelona, the GSMA Open Gateway initiative represents a paradigm shift in the way the global telecommunications industry designs and markets new mobile applications and immersive, digital services. The new Number Verification and SIM Swap services will also make online authentication easier and faster for customers, as mobile applications, cloud services and connectivity networks will be accessible through APIs.
GSMA Open Gateway is a common and open framework between operators that aims to make it easier for developers and cloud service providers to create more secure applications and services that communicate with each other seamlessly. This is done through unique, programmable mobile network access points, known as APIs. From Argentina to China, and from the United States to Australia, 42 mobile operator groups around the world are already part of this initiative, representing 237 mobile networks and 65% of current global connections.
