DNS Authentication Extension

By any other name, “robocall” is just another name for “SPAM.”

This suggests – since local loop analog transmissions (phone calls) are digitized at the carrier’s Central Office, and since VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol), itself, is digitized at the local loop – that the solution for eliminating robocalls actually lies in an extension of the current OSI/TCP-IP protocol infrastructure, with minimal re-engineering of the current physical telecommunications infrastructure and the addition of NO additional equipment by end-users or consumers.

This could be easily accomplished, by way of example, by re-creating the “analog model” for landline telephony. What particularly distinguished the plain “old telephone” system (POTS) from the current digital model was that each licensed user of the system actually had a physical, geographical location from which calls originated.

The solution contemplates extending the process of DNS (Domain Name Server) registration by means of an “extended certificate authority” accomplished by carriers through registration of any individual server/server process by any user or commercial entity with a verified geographical location included in the registration process. Carriers would accomplish final voluntary registration of their users, customers, or clients with customary, duly-authorized Internet registration authorities (e.g., http://www.iana.org/ and www.networksolutions.com). The final result of such registration acts to “dis-incentivize” organizations or individuals that originate malware and robocalls, by providing geographic information of the first leg of the “authentication process” – and, that information would become available to law enforcement.

Internet authorities(e.g.,www.cert.org), federal/local law enforcement, and carriers could effect Denial of Service (DOS) to either authenticated or non-authenticated servers that track back to originating individuals or entities. Attempts by perpetrators to use proxies would be ineffective in that the “zone of estimated origination” would narrow ever tighter with further attempts by malware originators to extend their reach beyond newly-disabled hosts.