STIR/SHAKEN
Also known as: call authentication, caller ID verification
STIR/SHAKEN is a set of telecom standards that cryptographically verify a caller's number has not been spoofed, helping carriers fight robocalls and protect legitimate caller ID.
STIR/SHAKEN is the industry framework U.S. carriers use to authenticate caller ID. When a call is placed, the originating carrier signs it with an attestation of how confident it is that the number is legitimate, and the receiving carrier verifies that signature, making number spoofing far harder.
For businesses, it underpins trustworthy caller ID and is part of the broader effort, alongside spam labeling, to keep phone networks usable. It complements consumer-protection law like the TCPA.
Frequently asked questions
How does STIR/SHAKEN help business calls?
By attesting that a number is genuinely authorized to the caller, the framework reduces the chance that a legitimate business number is spoofed or wrongly flagged as spam, which helps maintain answer rates for real outbound calls.
What does STIR/SHAKEN mean?
STIR/SHAKEN is a pair of telecom standards — Secure Telephone Identity Revisited and Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs — that let carriers cryptographically sign and verify caller ID, so a receiving network can tell whether a calling number was spoofed.
Is STIR/SHAKEN effective?
It meaningfully cuts caller-ID spoofing on modern IP networks and helps legitimate business numbers avoid false spam flags, but it is not a complete fix: calls crossing older non-IP equipment can't always be fully attested, and it labels rather than blocks. It works best alongside spam analytics and good calling practices.
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