The Overlooked Security Threats Of VoIP

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Rather than having to install a physical device, calls can simply be recorded using the right software. Often, this kind of threat comes from an employee inside the organisation, making it difficult to protect against. If a company is using an unencrypted VoIP protocol, then there is no barrier in place to stop calls from being recorded.

Even if the threat doesn’t come from an employee, for outside groups with an interest in recording a company’s telephone conversations, a Trojan could be used to install the recording tool.

How to secure your IP telephony

To secure an IP-PBX system, there are a several steps companies should take. Firstly, administrators need to keep a close eye on the system to monitor for any signs of an attempted attack, and act quickly to ensure successful ones are addressed at an early stage.

As highlighted earlier, one of the major reasons that IP-PBX systems are compromised is because hackers are able to easily break into a system that uses weak passwords. Often, the password won’t be changed from the default ‘password’ or ‘admin’, or will be changed to something easy to remember, such as the company name. Including numbers and symbols can increase the security of a password significantly, and make it much more difficult for a hacker to crack.

Yet even with strong passwords protecting every extension on the IP network, hackers will still try to break a system’s defences. As they can try so many passwords in a short space of time, it is worth their time to try an attack, as the chances are that eventually they will guess the correct password. For a business, this presents a very real risk, as it is difficult and time consuming to constantly monitor the IP telephony system for attempts at illegal access.

When an attack has been successful, and the hackers start routing unauthorised calls through an extension, it is very difficult for the administrator to see that this is happening. If legitimate users don’t notice a problem, then there is nothing to alert the administrator that the IP-BPX has been compromised.

This means that the hackers have free rein to route thousands of calls through the extension, and the company only finds out when it receives a large bill from its service provider. As a precaution, setting a monthly call limit with your service provider can reduce the effect of this. Of course, even a month of unauthorised calls can have a serious impact on a business.

Make the change before it is too late

IP telephony is going to be a much bigger part of corporate communication infrastructures over the coming years. While IT security is slowly but surely getting stronger, the same can’t be said of IP telephony systems, as the administrators of these systems often don’t realise the level of the danger faced.

The monetary loss that can be caused by a successful hack can far outweigh the original investment in the system. Yet the measures that need to be taken to protect the business are relatively simple, and don’t require a massive investment in hardware and software.

Once the right security measures have been put into place, then administrators can drastically reduce the chances of being on the receiving end of a successful hacking attack and ensure that the transition to a secure system is a simple and painless process.

Jonathan Greenwood is managing director, Snom UK Ltd