Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has become the preferred voice solution for many businesses around the globe. According to some estimates, over a billion people will soon be using VoIP platforms for personal and business calls. This growth has happened because VoIP is a cost-effective, feature-rich platform, which makes it ideal for businesses, especially. Like all digital services, though, there can be security issues.
What You Need to Know about VoIP
VoIP’s greatest strength—that it’s a digital, cloud-based phone and data service—can lead to security issues that aren’t a problem with traditional phone lines. VoIP communicates on port 5060, which is used extensively for many purposes. Hackers know this and can tap into a VoIP system to access handsets and make international calls, which is referred to as international toll fraud. This can cost an unsuspecting business a lot of money and service complications.
To break into a VoIP system, hackers will send bulk invites out, targeting handsets. Because they don’t know what extensions are active on a given phone system, they have to try thousands of combinations. When they find one that’s active, they hack the password and gain full access to phone service, voicemail, and any other services available to an authorized user.
This invasion can be stopped, however.
Data102’s Arsenal of Mitigation
At Data102, we have an array of monitors and controls in place to keep your VoIP system fully functional and free of unwanted traffic. We monitor invites, and when something suspicious is suspected, our controls will automatically lock down the IPs to keep your phones safe. These monitors can be checked in real time and take automatic action when necessary.
When hackers are trying to break in, speed is vital. A third party IT company could take hours to respond to the issue, if they catch it at all. At Data102, our controls ensure that attacks will be prevented so you aren’t left trying to pick up the pieces after the fact.
Contact us to learn more about the security measures we have in place to keep all of our clients’ data safe.
