New scams are born every day. For example, according to an FCC report, phone hacking has become a new form of fraud in which hackers break into a company’s voice mail system. Once the hacker has access, they rig it to either accept collect calls or place outgoing calls to international phone numbers. Unfortunately, the hackers usually ring up thousands of dollars worth of bills before they’re caught. Hacking a business’s voicemail isn’t the only way hackers can strike—they can also attack your VoIP network by spoofing VoIP account credentials.
These hackers tend to focus on small to medium sized businesses who tend to take fewer precautions in securing their business telephone system. In a period where everything online is exposed to hackers, it is vital for a company—big or small—to take every safeguard available. Here are a few tips:
- Have a minimum of six digits for your voicemail passcode.
Passwords are your first line of defense against hackers, and yet they are, ironically, often overlooked when it comes to business phone security. Having a six digit password instead of the typical four digits exponentially increases your security. Another safeguard is to not allow passcodes to possess any similarities to the phone number itself.
- Do not allow call forwarding to international numbers.
When a business allows users to deploy call forwarding to international numbers, they are only making it easier for hackers to swarm into the system. To increase your security, switch off default call forwarding and only allow experienced users to deploy it.
- Lock out voicemail after multiple invalid attempts
A hacker’s motto is “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again”. Don’t let them apply this to your phone system.
- Disable default international calling
If an employee happens to need to dial an international number, they should have to get specific approval. Otherwise, erroneous or illicit calls can take place and cost your business money.
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