FIX Network: Protection against SIM swapping and ID theft through mobile

Challenge
Our mobile phone numbers are increasingly becoming a unique method of personal identification and more and more companies and services are relying on smart devices as a means of authentication, such as 2-step verification.
Scammers who take control of the number can easily complete verification checks that protect our most sensitive information. The most common method of phone scamming is via SIM swapping. This is when a scammer convinces operators to swap over a subscribers’ number to a new SIM, resulting in the genuine customer being disconnected and all data being sent to the new, ‘fake’ SIM. 

It is estimated that over $50mn was stolen from crypto wallets in the US alone in 2018/2019 using SIM swapping.
As we evolve into a digital and decentralized society, we will become more and more reliant on mobile devices and more exposed to fraud in this way.   

Mobile devices are a critical part of our digital identities – we rely on them for every aspect of our lives, using them for everything from banking and finance, storing personal data to our individual digital footprints. Protecting this information is key to avoiding ID fraud and theft as well as unauthorized use of our data. 

In order to achieve the mass acceptance and adoption of these transformative services, users must be confident, comfortable and feel safe to entrust their digital lives to new decentralized applications, and yet still retain full control over their assets and data.

We have numerous and stringent expectations of the blockchain technology that we will employ together with our mobile operator partners in order to deliver the FIX Network solution globally.
 

Our exhaustive search for an appropriate platform led us to converge on NEM’s Symbol, as we are confident as this technology includes the features, security, reliability and interoperability between private and public blockchain networks to fulfill our current and future requirements. We are proud of our technology partnership with NEM.
 

Edwin Terek
Co-Founder, FIX Network

 



Approach
FIX Network was established to provide a solution that allows mobile subscribers to secure private keys and transactions on SIM cards.  FIX leverages existing cellular infrastructure by implementing a blockchain-based security protocol to support new privacy, security, management and safety solutions for mobile subscribers via SIM. 

This unique architecture will allow mobile operators to deliver services such as digital identity management, cryptocurrency wallets, and personal data firewalls, all enabled by the safekeeping of private keys on the subscribers’ SIM cards.

A critical piece of the FIX Network solution is the security policy, which consists of a set of highly flexible and adaptable rules that allow mobile subscribers to define the usage characteristics of their digital assets and identities, such as how those assets are to be stored, accessed, transacted and recovered.

The FIX Network architecture stipulates that these policies must be stored on and secured by independent, distributed and decentralized blockchain infrastructure and away from operators. The exacting design and operational specifications for the DLT has resulted in the company selecting NEM’s Symbol technology as this all-important backbone component.

The first product to be offered by FIX Network, FIX ID, serves to secure our most valuable digital identifier – the phone number – and prevent fraudulent activities such as SIM-swapping. This service, managed by an intuitive yet powerful end-user app, identifies participants through subscriber-owned global phone numbers that serve as unique digital identities. Mobile Operators will then be able to use FIX Network to provide OTT services such as crypto wallets, mobile banking, ID management – all providing opportunity for additional revenue streams. 

The initial implementation of the security policies that manage the FIX ID solution will not be blockchain-based. However, the Symbol from NEM  will be integrated as soon as possible to provide the desired distributed and decentralized characteristics to this FIX Network solution.

 



 

Benefit
Symbol blockchain allows FIX Network to focus on its strength of providing reliable and innovative services to the telecom industry. The extensive range of our platform’s out-of-the-box features will facilitate rapid integration, and ensure that Symbol meets the performance and reliability standards demanded by FIX Network and their partnership with global mobile telecom service providers. https://fix.network/

https://symbolplatform.com/fix-network-case-study/