Are you a developer who is passionate about creating a cloud communication platform? Before setting up your software, you’ll definitely need to make sure your system is secure enough to prevent fraud. Being one of the SIP Trunking Explained series, this post aims to introduce the Sip trunking security checklist to help you choose the right hosting provider that will provide you with easy yet important protections.
SIP trunking is a telecommunication circuit or Voice over Internet protocol that connects private branch exchange to the Internet. Sip trunking enables businesses to save a huge amount of money by connecting their internal communication system to the Internet and outside phone lines.
With all of these advantages, the use of SIP trunking may pose some security risks like IP PBX hacking, identity fraud, account takeover, etc. However, there are some security measures that can reduce or eliminate the risk. Without taking actions toward improvement, your system will always be susceptible to hackers and frauds.
What is SIP trunk fraud?
SIP trunk fraud is a kind of telephone system hacking during which a third-party attacks PBX system via connected SIP trunk. Gaining access to the system, they can make thousands of ongoing calls to phones in different countries because international and long-distance calls have high rates. This method, also known as toll fraud, causes surprisingly large phone bills for enterprises. This is only the beginning, keep reading.
Usually, enterprises face two types of telecom threats:
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Media payload threats
This threat happens when hackers eavesdrop or intercept your calls. Hackers could gather confidential private or company information, which could threaten the security of your business and the privacy of your employees with the additional risk of penalties for non-compliance.
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Signaling protocol threats
Signaling protocol threats pose three main risks. Telephone Denial of Service attacks occur when hackers gain access to your system and use automated calling equipment to flood your phones. Your phones are permanently busy, disrupting your service and leading to potential loss of revenue and customer confidence.
This type of threat can also lead to identity theft. Wolves in sheep’s clothing can gain personal or financial information, which can damage individual employees as well as the business.
Why should you care about SIP security measures?
SIP trunking connects your phone system to the Internet. It means you’ll face all the threats typical to IP technologies. When you’re connected to the Internet you become vulnerable to hackers. In order to prevent any attack and huge call charges you should take care of SIP trunking security measurements. Otherwise, you’re responsible for all the consequences, both financial and personal, that system breaches can cause.
What are the best security practices?
- Keep your passwords updated and secure, do not rely on default passwords, instead set a randomly generated one.
- Improve security at the access layer. Using firewalls or enterprise SBC (Session Border Controllers) you can ensure minimum level of protection.
- TLS protects Personally Identifiable Information such as names and telephone numbers, SRTP protects audio and video media traffic. If one of the encryption layers is not protected well, hackers can identify weak points and gain an access.
Wrapping up
Vulnerability to attacks has never been so intense. That’s why shielding clients’ and employees’ personal information from the variety of attacks is a real challenge for most enterprises. To minimize these risks and ensure flawless performance of phone system, enterprises should at least follow the security checklist mentioned above.
