Ericsson sells iconectiv to Koch Equity for $1bn

Data Center Dynamics

iconectiv, which has been co-owned with private equity firm Francisco Partners since 2017, serves more than 5,000 customers across various sectors.

The New Jersey-based company provides network number portability solutions and data exchange services.

Ericsson noted that it expects to book a one-off EBIT benefit of approximately SEK 8.8bn ($800 million) once the transaction closes.

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California’s new digital driver’s licenses to work in Apple, Google wallets

Los Angeles Times

Since it launched on a trial basis in September, the digital version of the California driver’s license has quietly attracted half a million users — more than any other state, but still less than 2% of the people licensed to drive in this one.

Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a step that could make the so-called mobile driver’s license more broadly appealing: Apple and Google will soon support the license in the wallets they pre-load onto all iPhones and Android smartphones.

Up to this point, the state has required you to use the California Department of Motor Vehicles’ wallet app to store the licenses on your phone. The DMV wallet, which is available through the Google and Apple app stores, is a single-purpose piece of software, and your phone may already be crowded with single-purpose apps from retailers, financial services, smart devices, ticketing agencies, streamers and the like.

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Developers can soon offer in‑app NFC transactions using the Secure Element

Apple

Starting with iOS 18.1, developers will be able to offer NFC contactless transactions using the Secure Element from within their own apps on iPhone, separate from Apple Pay and Apple Wallet. Using the new NFC and SE (Secure Element) APIs, developers will be able to offer in-app contactless transactions for in-store payments, car keys, closed-loop transit, corporate badges, student IDs, home keys, hotel keys, merchant loyalty and rewards cards, and event tickets, with government IDs to be supported in the future.
As users’ security and privacy is of the utmost importance to Apple, this new solution was designed to provide developers with a secure way to offer NFC contactless transactions from within their iOS apps. The NFC and SE APIs leverage the Secure Element — an industry-standard, certified chip designed to store sensitive information securely on device. Apple has dedicated significant resources to design a solution that protects users’ security and privacy, leveraging a number of Apple’s proprietary hardware and software technologies when making a contactless transaction, including the Secure Enclave, biometric authentication, and Apple servers. To make a contactless transaction within an app that utilizes these APIs, users can either open the app directly, or set the app as their default contactless app in iOS Settings, and double-click the side button on iPhone to initiate a transaction.

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Trai cracks down on misuse of messaging services, issues strict directive

Mint

In a clampdown on misuse of messaging services, including spams, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Tuesday issued a set of directions ordering telecom service providers to enable traceability of all messages from November, among a series of measures.

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New Scam Detection Product from FICO and Jersey Telecom Wins Datos Insights Award

Yahoo!Finance

BOZEMAN, Mont. & SAINT HELIER, Jersey, August 21, 2024–(BUSINESS WIRE)–In the fight against the growing problem of scams, global analytics software leader FICO and Jersey Telecom (JT) have produced a powerful solution, which has won an award from Datos Insights, a global advisory firm providing mission-critical insights on technology, regulations, strategy, and operations to the financial services industry. Datos Insights recognized FICO and JT as the winners of the Silver Medal in the Fraud Impact Award for Best Scam and APP (Authorized Push Payment) Fraud Prevention solution.

The FICO® Customer Communications Service Scam Signal is now also available in the UK and Spain, with plans to expand to additional markets. It has also been shortlisted for the Anti-Fraud Solution of the Year in the 2024 UK Payments Awards.

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AI deepfake scams are on the rise

Telecoms.com

In the first half of the year, voice security firm Hiya flagged nearly 20 billion calls as suspected spam, which equates to over 107 million spam calls everyday. The firm put out a report which showed spam flag rates of more than 20% of unknown calls in 25 out of the 42 countries it analysed, with some spam flag rates above 50%.

The report looked at the volume, frequency and type of phone spam and fraud across major global markets between January and June this year.

Scams which use AI-generated voice-cloning technology to impersonate people or organisations increased in the first half of the year. Hiya highlighted an incident in the lead up to the US primary election in January in which voters in New Hampshire received robocalls impersonating Joe Biden, and expects that voice-cloning impersonation scam tactics will continue to be on the rise in 2024 and beyond.

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