Sprint will be the first carrier to use Cequint’s Enhanced Caller ID service in conjunction with Transaction Network Services’ (TNS) Call Guardian service to identify fraudulent and nuisance callers as well as caller ID spoofing, the latter company announced. The combined service will provide Sprint’s Premium Caller ID customers with additional protection against problem callers, including robocalls and spammers, TNS said. The service is newly available on Sprint’s HTC Bolt, and will be available on more devices soon.

The Sprint Premium Caller ID application from Cequint displays a caller’s category and fraud risk level, identifying calls from robocallers, spammers, spoofers, and scammers. Subscribers may elect to block the number in order to prevent future calls and may also choose to report the call, which is used to refine data via crowd-sourcing.

TNS Call Guardian assesses the calling behavior of more than 500 million unique telephone numbers and, through the use of real-time data, ensures that legitimate callers whose calling identity has been hijacked by spoofers can regain their reputations quickly. TNS Call Guardian is accessible via numerous types of signaling protocols, can be customized by the individual operator, and is available to all types of service providers, including wireless, VoIP, and TDM wireline, TNS said.

PacketZoom this week launched the PacketZoom Global Mobile App Network Benchmarks. This is the first global standard for mobile app developers and publishers to gauge mobile app performance across geographies and  networks. PacketZoom will publish monthly benchmarks analyzing global data for mobile app performance across 2G, 3G, 4G, and Wi-Fi networks.

Anite, now part of Keysight Technologies, announced that Eastlink, a telecommunications company in Canada, has selected its Nemo Cloud and Nemo Explorer measurement probes for remote, unattended, autonomous measurements of its 4G/LTE network in Canada.

Eastlink will be using the Nemo products to monitor and control remote locations in its network. Nemo Explorer is used for autonomous, unattended measurement, and Nemo Cloud is used to centrally monitor and control the probes out in the field.

Intel Security has released its McAfee Labs 2017 Threats Predictions Report, which identifies 14 threat trends to watch in 2017, including threats around ransomware, sophisticated hardware and firmware attacks, attacks on “smart home” IoT devices, the use of machine learning to enhance social engineering attacks, and an increase in cooperation between industry and law enforcement.

Intel’s top predictions include the following:

1. Ransomware attacks will decrease in volume and effectiveness in the second half of 2017.
2. Windows vulnerability exploits will continue to decline, while those targeting infrastructure software and virtualization software will increase.
3. Hardware and firmware will be increasingly targeted by sophisticated attackers.
4. Hackers using software running on laptops will attempt “dronejackings” for a variety of criminal or hacktivist purposes.
5. Mobile attacks will combine mobile device locks with credential theft, allowing cyber thieves to access such things as banks accounts and credit cards.
6. IoT malware will open backdoors into the connected home that could go undetected for years.
7. Machine learning will accelerate the proliferation of and increase the sophistication of social engineering attacks.
8. Fake ads and purchased “likes” will continue to proliferate and erode trust.
9. Ad wars will escalate and new techniques used by advertisers to deliver ads will be copied by attackers to boost malware delivery capabilities.
10. Hacktivists will play an important role in exposing privacy issues.
11. Leveraging increased cooperation between law enforcement and industry, law enforcement takedown operations will put a dent in cybercrime.
12. Threat intelligence sharing will make great developmental strides in 2017.
13. Cyber espionage will become as common in the private sector and criminal underworld as it is among nation-states.
14. Physical and cybersecurity industry players will collaborate to harden products against digital threats.