India pauses blockchain-powered SMS spam-scrubber after it swallows people's one-time login codes

India’s Telecom Regulatory Authority has paused the rollout of a national SMS “scrubbing” service and blamed business for the delay. The authority, aka TRAI, introduced the scrubbing service to curb text spam in India, where mobile phone users can expect a couple of unsolicited messages every day according to spam-blocking app …

[CrackedNoggin]

So somebody else gets to spy on all your bank SMS OTP's ? What could go wrong?

[Winkypop]

Just as well...

India is awash with call centres full of experts.

I know, a Microsoft engineer rang me just the other day, repeatedly....

[Denarius]

a simpler solution

spammers users get hard labour in a suitable salt mine in the hills. A slight sentence reduction for dobbing in spammers, their contacts and finance services.

[Ken Moorhouse]

Re: spammers users get hard labour in a suitable salt mine in the hills

Isn't that where all the salt that goes into encrypted messages come from?

[Sgt_Oddball]

Re: spammers users get hard labour in a suitable salt mine in the hills

Maybe that explains why they've made such a hash of it....

[Ken Moorhouse]

Re: Maybe that explains why they've made such a hash of it....

I, at least, appreciated your cryptic comment.

[Sitaram Chamarty]

Re: Maybe that explains why they've made such a hash of it....

this place is peppered with comedians!

[Ken Moorhouse]

Re: this place is peppered with comedians!

I now appreciate your cryptic comment having looked it up.

I learn something new every day.

[katrinab]

Far to many mentions of the word "blockchain" in that article for my liking. That is probably the problem.

Nothing wrong with blockchains per se. They are a way of storing data, and in many cases, a very good way to store data. But if you are focusing on the way you store the data, you are likely not focusing on what you are actually doing with it.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Far to many mentions of the word "blockchain" in that article for my liking."

Indeed.

They need to also use some AI on a "serverless" cloud.

[iron]

So India's Telecom Regulatory Authority are intercepting all SMS? Another example of why I keep telling my bank that SMS MFA is not secure. Especially when you require it every 5 minutes that I'm logged into their site and again if I actually try to do anything on the site. Annoying as hell and not secure given the number of people that could be snooping on SMS and surely thieves take a victim's phone as well as their wallet.

How long before GCHQ suggest they need the power to intercept ALL SMS in order to prevent SPAM?