VoIP communications and UCASS / CPASS have increased in popularity among businesses over the years and are continuing to grow. It can help your communications to run smoother, while also minimizing the costs.
However, there are some security issues that you should be aware of. The reason as to why VoIP has potential security vulnerabilities is because it operates over the internet.
To learn more about these security issues and how to prevent them, take a look below.
Main VoIP Security Threats
Phishing
Phishing is one of the biggest security issues that businesses face. If you’re not aware of what phishing is and the signs to lookout for, it could be a very easy way for people to gain your private information.
It works by scammers sending emails that are fraudulent. They may ask for information such as login details which they can use to access your systems and steal information.
Therefore, you’ll want to be especially aware of clicking on links from emails.
Viruses
People can upload malware and spam such as extortionware and randsomware onto the computers in your business by using the internet connection from the VoIP systems.
Businesses can experience a lot of issues if the computers are taken over by malware.
ID Spoofing
Some hackers are able to gain information about your business and use it as the caller ID when making calls. This can give the impression to the people being called that it’s your business on the other end of the line.
It can lead to hackers gaining information from people within your business without them realizing that they’re on the line with a hacker.
Call Hacking
People can hack into the calls being made to and from your business. As a result, they can listen in to confidential conversations to gain information.
It works by the hackers having the calls rerouted to locations that aren’t within your business.
Service Break Ins
Hackers can have access to your account by breaking in. This can lead to them being able to keep you locked out of the account and changing the login details.
Ways to Prevent Security Threats
Prior to using VoIP software from a company, be sure that they’re one for taking the right security measures. Look out for things such as their authentication processes and methods of signalling are up to standard.
This can help to prevent possible security threats from the get-go.
Now that you know more about the kinds of threats that are available with VoIP systems, you can learn more about the ways to prevent these issues below.
Secure Your Wireless Network
One of the ways you can prevent hackers from making their way into your VoIP systems is to secure your wireless network. This is especially useful for stopping hackers from being able to hijack calls and carry out ID spoofing.
SSH (Secure Shell Network) is a protocol that can be used to to keep your data communication more secure.
Encryption
Encryption is a fantastic way to alter information into something that’s very difficult to read. Usually, a code is required to make the information clear again. Without the code, hackers will have a hard time understanding the data at all.
Integrating encryption to your VoIP system works effectively to prevent people stealing information, ID spoofing, and hijacking calls.
DPI
DPI stands for deep packet inspections and it works by taking a look through information as it comes through your firewall. It can then provide you with details on anyone trying to intrude on your system, as well as any viruses of activity that it deems suspicious.
If a DPI finds something unusual, it will reroute the information to a different area while it determines the threat level.
Passwords
Login details can be accessed by hackers and enable them to have total control over your VoIP service. Therefore, we recommend that you change your passwords on a regular basis.
This is a simple and effective way to make it more difficult for hackers to access your account.
Team Training
Another effective way of limiting the risk of hackers and your VoIP network is to train your employees on what the threats are.
As a result, they’ll be able to have an easier time spotting when something isn’t quite right. You can then take faster action to prevent hackers gaining any more confidential information. Your IT team should be notified as soon as possible to ensure the right investigations and procedures can be carried out.
Updates
It’s important for you to keep up with updates on a regular basis. This is especially the case when it comes to firmware. This will help to keep security tight and prevent hackers from finding any weak spots.
Important Voicemails
If you need to let someone in the business know about something that involves sensitive information via a voicemail, it’s a good idea to delete the voicemail once the person has listened to it.
This is a precautionary step that can prevent hackers from finding any sensitive information through your voicemail system.
Administrative Access
You may want to consider having your system administration managed from a centralized location. In addition to this, it’s worth setting up a range of authentication processes before being allowed access to the system.
What Sinkholing Is & How It Can Prevent Threats?
Sinkholing is a method that businesses use to change the way that data flows between different points within a network.
The desired outcome is to prevent certain streams of traffic from getting to the anticipated server. It’s achieved by having the traffic redirected from the original to a new server, which is known as the sinkhole. Whoever owns the main server also owns the one that has been redirected.
It’s a cyber security method that has been receiving a lot of praise over the years for its ability to fend against malware. Traffic that’s caught as being potentially malicious is sent to a server in the sinkhole where it’s analyzed.
This is one of the ways that researchers have been able to study malware and work on ways to enhance the security of sinkholing.
When it comes to enterprises, sinkholing can be used as a way to prevent people being able to visit all websites. This is handy for preventing employees going against company policies by trying to get onto pages that aren’t allowed.
Often times, a page can appear that lets them know of the corporate policies and why they’re unable to access certain websites. The company is then alerted to the site that was trying to be access as well as the employee to ensure that the correct action can be taken.
Sinkholing is also something that’s used by the government as a way to track down wanted individuals. In particular, sinkholing can help them gain access to illegal infrastructures to take them down.
Different Types of Sinkholing
There are a couple different types of sinkholing available. Learn more about what these methods are in this section.
External
External sinkholing is where any type of device that uses the internet can be accessed. Therefore, it’s gained a reputation for being one of the more controversial sinkholing methods.
Having said that, it’s also a very effective technique that helps businesses avoid malware problems. There can be some legal complications when it comes to external sinkholing.
In the case that someone is trying to access your system, external sinkholing may be used to control their machine. Regardless if it’s only for research, it can still be breaking protocols in certain areas.
The technology for external sinkholing has been improving recently. You’re now provided with information about whether or not the device being used to access your company has malicious intentions.
This enables businesses to make more informed decisions about the kind of action to take.
Internal
Internal sinkholing works to help companies find out which systems have been implemented with viruses. It’s an effective way to isolate these systems and prevent them from having a larger negative effect on the entire network.
Businesses are able to control these devices after they’ve been properly identified.
Conclusion
VoIP systems can be an excellent way to help businesses improve their communications. However, if certain precautionary steps aren’t taken to keep the system secure, it can lead to sensitive information being hacked.
You can use the information in this post to ensure that you’re able to integrate VoIP software into your business and experience more of the benefits and less of the possible security risks.