On June 19th and 20th I was please to participate in RAG Toronto 2019, the North American conference put on by the Risk and Assurance Group (RAG) held at Telus Harbour (next to Scotiabank Arena, home of the 2019 NBA Champion Toronto Raptors ! see my post https://www.amitel.com/raptors/)
The Risk & Assurance Group was set up in 2003 by UK telcos and its original name was the Revenue Assurance Group. RAG allowed practitioners to share advice about this new discipline. They discussed issues, wrote papers, and their work shaped RA, as members took jobs with telcos and vendors around the world. RAG changed with its members, encouraging more widespread participation around the world. Remaining at the cutting edge of assurance, RAG covers fraud management, enterprise risk management, law enforcement liaison, credit risk and security.
I attended for two main reasons; to learn more about the latest in telecom fraud mitigation and to network with telco fraud professionals from Canada and overseas. One of the keys in combatting telecom fraud is co-operaton. Telcos must work together and that was the theme of the opening panel of the conference with speakers from the Big 3; Telus, Bell and Rogers. Co-operation and information sharing about fraud trends is key; that is why AurorA is a member of the i3Forum of carriers as on of their mandates is also the Fight Against Fraud.
The conference highlighted hot topics in telecom fraud management, the increased prevalence of Wangiri fraud, selling anti-fraud as a service and the RAG Wangiri Blockchain Project to help combat that scourge worldwide. There were other good sessions more geared to revenue assurance, cybersecurity and the coming IoT world but telecom fraud was what I was most interested in.
Selling anti-fraud as a service is something that I don’t believe in, at least for AurorA. As AurorA is a wholesale carrier and does not serve consumer, SMB or enterprise customers directly, I have always felt that providing fraud mitigation is a key part of the service offering . It has to be a part of it, especially as a premium service. It turns out that it is a key differentiator for AurorA as many of the competitors who offer cheaper rates per minute often do very little anti-fraud front. A cheap rate doesn’t help you when your network is under attack !
The networking was also worthwhile, especially with the organizers from RAG in the UK. They were very friendly, welcoming and open and free with sharing information. Post show, I signed AurorA up to become a RAG member.
Thanks also to Telus for hosting the conference in their lovely Telus Harbour building. I look forward to attending the next RAG North American event in 2020.
