My opinion in recent years is that, completely by accident, we made the internet more secure then the phone system. On the internet we have - for it's faults -

My opinion in recent years is that, completely by accident, we made the internet more secure then the phone system. On the internet we have - for it's faults - the DNS and X.509 certificate systems. When I go to my bank's website, I know it's my bank. We desperately need telecommunications to implement the same thing - i.e. businesses must present a valid cryptographic certificate which ties back to their registration number when using the phone system. At the very least, so someone claiming to be a business would have a clear "invalid certificate" message displayed on the receiver.