VOIP SECURITY
Soothing fears over lost Voice With a remote workforce, it was only a matter of time before VoIP solutions hit a boom. But as more businesses are enticed by ‘Phone’ offerings, they may not understand the risks that come with it.
One of the biggest challenges for businesses over the past year has been striking a balance between letting employees work from home, and ensuring they are in the best environment to be productive. That problem has long been one that bosses have struggled with, predating the pandemic, despite working from home being a viable option for many for over a decade. Nevertheless, boosted by two years of productivity from home, employees resisted any calls to resume the nine-to-five commute, and today lots of the workforce enjoy at least two days working from home if they so choose. But with more people away from desks, the days of picking up the phone have been replaced by collaboration platforms that can carry out scheduled video calls, facilitate quick messages, and integrate phone lines so calls will always reach employees. In short, Voice over IP is replacing the deskphone. According to Persistence Market Research, by the end of the year, the value of the VoIP market will have grown to over USD $472 billion; but with that growth comes risk. “With well over half a billion people using collaboration tools a day worldwide, making calls over the internet seems like a great idea,” said Anurag Lal, President & CEO at NetSfere. “However, as with most of the internet, signing up for VoIP solutions can open businesses up to security risks.” Cutting the cord “Many are moving away from landlines and desktop phone systems and gravitating towards VoIP to accommodate for the shift to remote work. According to a 2021 report from Multicominc, 31% of businesses utilise a VoIP solution in their organisation. VoIP is a great collaboration tool to have in your toolbox along with video calling, instant messaging,
and brings an appealing ease and quickness to remote communications. “But as with these other tools, VoIP too comes with security risks, the biggest of which is vishing attacks. Cybercriminals hack into the phone system and from there can listen in on private calls, gather sensitive information and even begin to impersonate your business. A similar attack called VOMIT (Voice Over Misconfigured Internet Telephones) can give an attacker access to information such as the call origin and location.”
Anurag Lal President & CEO
www.netsfere.com
VoIP too comes with security risks,
the biggest of which is
vishing attacks. Cybercriminals hack into the phone system and from there can listen in and even begin to impersonate your business
“VoIP solutions are cost-effective, reliable, and flexible tools for business communications today,” said Lee Underwood, Channel Manager for UK&I at Snom, “but companies who fail to do their due diligence when deploying them, may face security risks. Hacking and exploiting insecure VoIP phone systems is a lucrative endeavour for skilled cybercriminals. Other threats to these devices can include Vishing, spam, DDoS attacks, and Call tampering. “These risks are prevalent because VoIP devices operate over the internet and are therefore more susceptible to cybersecurity attacks. It’s important for businesses to recognise that the security of their VoIP
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