Voice over Internet Protocol will give your telephone network stronger connectivity, huge cost savings, and a centralized system (VoIP). And since you did it, your company is presumably utilizing them to their full potential.
However, they probably omitted to mention VoIP’s cybersecurity hazards.
Yes, VoIP reduces network expenses. But at what security cost? How many fresh risks have you made your company vulnerable to? How much staff training is now necessary to fend off dangerous software and hackers?
Compared to your old standard telephone service, VoIP networks are significantly more closely connected to the internet. They are therefore more vulnerable to attack.
This article will examine six of the most prevalent cybersecurity risks that you, your company, and your customers should be aware of.
- 𝗗𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 (𝗗𝗼𝗦) 𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀
The sophisticated technology and software that we’ll examine in this essay only makes some of the cybersecurity concerns conceivable. However, DoS assaults don’t require as much expertise. They are also very cheap to operate, which is one of the major worries.
Anyone with enough resources and some technological expertise can launch a DoS assault.
Your User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) ports may be at risk if you implement a VoIP system. If you disregard that risk, they might be utilized in a distributed denial-of-service attack.
Session Initial Protocol (SIP) call-signaling packets sent by hackers will overburden your VoIP server. Furthermore, they don’t even need to access your entire network.
Instead, these messages fill the available bandwidth with incomplete requests and overwhelm your VoIP server. DoS attacks have become so regular and disruptive that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security have published warnings about the potential threats. Your system will slow down and, in some situations, might stop completely due to the traffic. However, you might be startled to find that hackers target smaller businesses as well. It turns out that no organization is too tiny to be targeted by a denial-of-service attack. Established businesses have already incurred millions of dollars’ worth of damage from disruption and lost revenue. This cost is now being borne by SMEs, as 70% of these companies were subject to cyberattacks in 2018.
- 𝐕𝐢𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞
Almost all of your electronics can be harmed by viruses and other malicious software. VoIP networks are the same.
Your VoIP network is susceptible to worms, malware, and other infections, much like the majority of internet-based applications. This is so because your VoIP system employs softphones, or software that acts like a phone.
Softphones are used in almost every VoIP system, and they are frequently targeted alongside computer applications. These viruses may cause a wide range of unwelcome system interruptions. They’ll destroy important data, gain access to confidential information, and seize control of a complete computer network.
Therefore, it’s crucial to install and frequently update reliable antivirus software. The need of staff training cannot be overstated because many infections deceive users into installing them.
VoIP networks also have a serious problem with mobile viruses. Many people use their smartphones to conduct VoIP calls when away from their desks. Once malware and other harmful applications have access to your smartphone, they can access and steal a variety of important data.
- 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴
No, there is no typo. The voice-based equivalent of malicious email phishing is called vishing. clever play on words, yes? However, it is not even close to being as sophisticated as some of the well designed vishing methods employed daily.
Employees are duped through fraud strategies. However, they could also con customers, suppliers, and even other businesses into disclosing private data. Typically, this fraud strategy will target easily manipulable financial and personal information.
How might a vishing attack affect your company, though? In fact, these systems might successfully control much more than accounting if they can persuade employees to share information necessary to access secured networks, like passwords.
One of the rare cybersecurity threats that concentrates on the user rather than the software and hardware is this one. It is one of the more challenging risks to avoid because of this distinctive quality.
Vishing will also be used by hackers
- 𝗣𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴
The first of two VoIP call fraud strategies we’ll talk about is phreaking. Vishing and call fraud both aim to access protected networks with permission before abusing them.
When a hacker gains access to your company’s VoIP network and makes use of it, this is known as phreaking. The main goals of this kind of fraud are to defraud the service provider and rack up expensive network calls.
Hackers will gain access to the VoIP service provider data to accomplish that. They will be able to copy and modify account numbers, access codes, and other information.
They will be able to utilize that information to steal more data from the company, to start with. They will be able to exploit the VoIP service, which is more concerning. Phreaking hackers frequently add phone extensions so they may exploit the network covertly. They will place costly calls and rack up astronomical service provider fees.
Even worse, they might radically alter the network plan. Hackers will modify the service plan and add or withdraw credit to accommodate their pricey calls. Until the first really expensive payment is paid, the majority of this behavior will go unreported.
- 𝗘𝗮𝘃𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴
Another one of the more prevalent cybersecurity dangers is eavesdropping, which is also one of our call fraud strategies. It can also be exceedingly difficult to counter.
As the term suggests, hackers listen in on VoIP calls after gaining access to them. They will initially unlawfully intercept VoIP traffic that is not encrypted. It is simple to intercept audio stream data packets that are sent over the internet (i.e., VoIP traffic). These packets will subsequently be converted into phone conversations using cheap software.
They then have unrestricted access to all kinds of confidential corporate data. Cybercriminals can do this from whatever location they want, which just makes matters worse.
They will typically be on the lookout for employee information and passwords. They might hear account numbers, contact information, and other personnel information. With that information, a hacker has access to internal admin portals, voicemail, and service plans.
Once hackers have access to this sensitive information, identity theft and VoIP service theft are simple crimes to do. Consider encrypting your VoIP transmissions to safeguard both you and your company from it.
- 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗺 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘁 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 (𝗦𝗣𝗜𝗧)
Spam also increases in prevalence as VoIP technology improves and is utilized more frequently. Spam and the internet are inextricably linked.
Anyone who has ever used email is familiar with spam. In essence, spam is uninvited, undesired communication. Spam is intended to serve as extensive advertising. However, spam content frequently conceals harmful phishing techniques as well. VoIP spam is the same.
Every VoIP device has a different IP address. This implies that yours does as well. As a result, spammers are able to collect thousands of IP addresses and spam each one with as many texts and voicemails as they want.
VoIP spam typically appears as a voicemail when it does. And there are two reasons why spam reaches your VoIP system.
First, it might just be an easy marketing gimmick. Even while we claim it’s simple, it won’t seem that way when thousands or even hundreds of messages suddenly start to arrive on your VoIP system voicemail over the course of a single night. With such widespread advertising effort, you’ll squander a lot of time. Unfortunately, your voicemail is ineffective and jam-packed.
In addition, the spam on your voicemail may be related to a phishing scam. You must therefore take care to avoid unintentionally disclosing important corporate information.