Communication Source Verification Using Digital Certificate Mapping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current communication verification systems are inefficient in distinguishing legitimate from malicious sources, particularly in phone calls and text messages, due to the time-consuming nature of verification processes and reliance on phone companies, which allows malicious actors to impersonate legitimate businesses, leading to potential misuse.
Innovation Solution
A system that registers entities with digital certificates and maps source identifiers like phone numbers to users, enabling verification of incoming communications by matching these identifiers against a database, even without requiring the digital certificate for subsequent communications, thus providing a layer of verification independent of traditional systems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If phone companies manually verify caller IDs to ensure legitimacy, then the reliability of communication source identification is improved, but the time and resources required for verification increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary verification by maintaining a pre-approved database of legitimate communication sources with their verified identifiers. Before communication occurs, the system has already validated these sources through digital certificates and other verification mechanisms, so that during actual communication, the verification is instantaneous by simply checking against the pre-verified database rather than performing new verification each time.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a copy of the verification process by maintaining a database of verified source identifiers that replicates the trust relationship established through digital certificates. Instead of requiring full certificate verification for every communication, the system uses copied verification data (verified source IDs in database) to quickly authenticate communication sources, dramatically reducing verification time while maintaining reliability.
2Reliability
If phone companies implement strict verification processes for all communication sources, then the reliability of identifying legitimate sources is improved, but the device complexity and operational burden increase
Solution Approach 1:
The verification system is segmented into distinct components: a database management component that stores verified source identifiers, a verification component that checks incoming communications against the database, and an integration component that works with existing phone company infrastructure. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function simply, avoiding the need for a single complex verification system while maintaining high reliability through coordinated operation of simpler parts.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary verification layer between the communication source and the recipient. This intermediary component checks source identifiers against the verified database and provides authentication information without requiring the phone company's core infrastructure to become more complex. The intermediary handles the verification burden separately, allowing the existing communication system to remain simple while adding reliable verification capability.
3Measurement precision
If manual verification of communication sources is performed, then the accuracy of identifying legitimate callers is improved, but the productivity of communication processing decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The verification system operates autonomously by automatically checking incoming communication source identifiers against the pre-populated database of verified sources. The system self-manages the verification process without requiring human intervention for each communication check, thus maintaining high identification accuracy while processing communications at high speed. The database automatically updates and the verification occurs instantaneously for each incoming communication.
Data Source
AI summary
Aspects of the disclosure provide for methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer-readable storage media for verifying the sources of incoming messages and requests for communication to a computing device. A system can receive a verification request to verify the source of a communication between a source computing device and a recipient computing device. The system can determine, from data defining a mapping between one or more first source identifiers and a user, whether the mapping includes a first source identifier and a second source identifier of the communication request. The mapping can be generated using a digital certificate associated with the user. The one or more first source identifiers can be mapped to the user after the digital certificate is created. The system can send a response to the verification request to the recipient computing device, the response identifying the source of the communication as the user.