Phone System Security – Act now….
Christmas Breaks have often proved a very lucrative time for unscrupulous PBX hackers out there. The majority of businesses providing an out of hours answering service for their customers, which hackers thrive on.
There are a number of things that you can do to ensure your system is secure.
1) Ensure your voicemail boxes are not accessible remotely
Allowing access even by passwords to your voicemail box remotely can allow hackers the opportunity to make calls from your mail box. It is certainly best to use a voicemail to email service rather than allow remote access to your voicemail.
2) Ensure that all your system passwords are strong and no default passwords are in use anywhere.
Default passwords are like a Christmas present to hackers, they can even from prompts on the system recognise which vendors system it, their 1st easy step is to try that vendors default set of passwords
3) Verify that external access is not possible from your Main System Greeting
A simple check that you can do yourself, where you use a greeting like : Thank you for calling “Business A” please dial 1 for sales etc. , ring in to your greeting and dial the code you would normally do for dialling an external number, if you get an immediate disconnect tone, on dialling a digit, this is correct behaviour. However if you get prompted to enter a password, this is a potential vulnerability and one you should have closed for you.
4) IP/SIP Line Security:
The majority of present day phone systems have VOIP/SIP Lines as part of the system, so it is crucial that these lines are secure also.
a. Make sure your system only accepts invites from the VOIP Provider you use
b. Ensure the password on the account is strong and secure
c. Verify your VOIP Line provider has a limit to the amount of calls you are allowed make per day
By implementing the steps above, they will help to keep the hackers out and that you Christmas and New Year’s breaks are not spoiled by a very large phone bill on returning.
If you are unsure of any of the above, please do not hesitate to contact us on 021-4300737
