4 VoIP Security Threats you must be aware of

Global Unified Communication is growing every year, with revenues and valuation reaching new heights. The linear growth in unified communication and advancement in technology seems unstoppable, but it doesn’t mean that old barriers that once held back many businesses to implement effective communication systems are not foiling the business owners now.

The communication system has changed over time from Plain Old Telephone Systems (POTS) to VoIP. There were few concerns in the past implementing the VoIP like reliability, cost, and functionality. As technology paced, VoIP security concerns hiked and it has been a matter of concern for many businesses.

In this blog, I am listing down all the security threats VoIP that is getting plenty of airtime these days. Read on to learn how to make your communication system more secure.

Some of the most common VoIP Security threats are:

  • Toll Fraud
  • Phone System Exploitation
  • Denial of Service
  • Social Engineering

Toll Fraud:

Toll fraud is the most common type of VoIP security threat that has been on rising since 2013. It one of the most common frauds in the telecom industry.

The stats also explain the same.

Number Speaks…

According to the Communications Fraud Control Association (CFCA) in their 2017 survey of telecom fraud loss, organizations and carriers were hit with losses of $29.2 billion in 2017.

What is Toll Fraud?

Toll fraud is also called VoIP fraud in which hackers access the phone system to make long calls on expensive routes. Mostly fraudsters make international calls and calls to premium-rate numbers. If fraudster gains access to the business phone system, then they can make calls for free and the attacked business owner is liable to pay the bills.

In simple words,

Toll fraud is the use of business phone systems to make fraudulent calls on international or expensive routes without the consent of business owners and intent to pay.

Types of Toll Fraud:

  • International Revenue Share Fund (IRSF)
  • Interconnect Bypass (example: SIM Box)
  • Premium Rate Service
  • Arbitrage
  • Theft / Stolen Goods

How Toll fraud is Conducted:

Here are the most popular methods to conduct toll frauds:

  • PBX Hacking
  • IP PBX Hacking
  • Subscription Fraud(Application)
  • Dealer Fraud
  • Subscription Fraud(Identity)

Toll frauds can be avoided using popular toll fraud threat protection methods such as using strong passwords, set up firewalls, implement international calling restrictions and reviewing the call logs regularly.

VoIP providers should keep round the clock fraud monitoring and business owners should also be aware of these vulnerabilities and perform frequent security checks.

Phone System Exploitation:

Phone system exploitation is a method in which fraudster hacks the business phone system either due to unprotected system or logging in the admin system using the credentials.

Admin system credentials give them unlimited access to the system data and functionality. This attack can be menacing for the business owners as your system is exposed to the hackers.

Denial of Service (DOS):

Denial of Service is basically done with an intent to crash or shut down the system. In the communication industry, telephony DOS (TDOS) is used by the hackers and TDOS targets the VoIP systems.

The best example of Telephony denial of service attack is that an automatic phone dialer system calls the target phone number and hangs up.

DOS attacks are of two types flooding services attack and crashing services attack. Flooding services attack will send traffic to the system that the server is not able to handle resulting in sever crash. This type of attack can cost a good time and money for your organization.

The most vulnerable VoIP threats in a unified communication system are automatic dialer phone system or remote UC features.

Social Engineering:

Social Engineering attack is only possible if devious employee stabs in your back as this threat generates when a fraudster gets the admin access to your system with the help of an employee.

How Can you prevent these VoIP threats?

Preventing these financially devasting threats is an end and itself. The solution to prevent attacks in the communication industry is using SBC.

What is SBC?

Session Board Controller (SBC) acts as a firewall for a business phone system that secures voice over IP (VoIP) infrastructure and provides interworking between sessions from end devices.

SBCs are mandatory to use to protect your system against malicious attacks, connecting to remote employees and with cloud services. SBCs operate at application layer to detect VoIP threats.

Check *astSBC – *astTECS Session Board Controller to protect your business communication system against VoIP threats.