Prevent Phone

System Hacking

What is phone system hacking?

Phone system hacking, also know as PBX hacking and dial-through fraud, is a method of fraud used by criminals who intelligently hack a business’s phone system to illegally reroute calls to premium-rate phone numbers.

The global cost of this fraud is estimated to be a staggering £25 billion every single year.

Phone hacking cost UK businesses up to £1.2billion every year

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By default your phone system will have passwords for each extension’s voicemail. Typically the default setting for the voicemail passwords is ‘1234’. Changing this is the first vital step to better security.

Voicemail is often the first route to hacking your phone system, and it doesn’t take a genius to crack the password ‘1234’. We’d suggest changing every extension’s voicemail password to something unique and personal – and never tell anyone else what it is!

Our most popular phone system, the LG-Erisccon IPECS, allows you to change the voicemail password simply by dialing a default voicemail number from your handset. From here all you need to do is access the admin section of the audio menu and choose the option ‘change password’.

Call our technical team on 020 8090 5555. Our experienced engineers have worked with almost every major make of phone system; we’ll have you secured and ready to go in no time.

D.I.S.A (direct inward system access) provides password-protected access to your system for anyone outside your organisation. With D.I.S.A switched off you will unfortunately forego a certain number of features but this is a small price to pay for better security.

With D.I.S.A turned off you will almost completely deny any outside access to your system, thus reducing hacking attempts. If D.I.S.A is needed by your business – because users need to dial in and access voicemail, for example – then it should be restricted to reduce the chances of a hacking attempt.

Depending on your make and model of system, you can control D.I.S.A from the admin panel of your phone system management software. You may want to disable D.I.S.A completely, or you could simply change the access code and ensure that basic security features are switched on; certain systems include a D.I.S.A alarm that prevents system access after several unsuccessful password attempts.

Speak to our technical team today on 020 8090 5555. Our experienced engineers will be able to guide you through the process of changing your D.I.S.A settings in no time!

Call Logging gives you full visibility of your calling activity and can even alert you of suspicious activity and out-of-the-ordinary calling habits. Call logging lets you monitor call spend by extension, by destination or by time of day.

Call Logging could provide you with essential critical alerts in the event of a hacking attempt. With our call logging package you can create rules that, when triggered, will send you an email alert instantly.

Already have a Call Logging package? Speak to your current provider to learn how to create alerts and rules. Otherwise, contact us and we can provide a free no-obligation demo of our Call Logging software (which costs from around £9.99 per month per extension).

We have a range of Call Logging solutions that can cater for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Speak to our telecoms specialists today on 020 8090 5555.

Almost every phone hacking story ends with the victim being subject to thousands of pounds worth of calls to premium-rate phone numbers, usually found outside the UK. By adding a restriction on the type of numbers that can be called, you’ll benefit from added protection against hackers.

Without access to international and premium-rate phone numbers, fraudsters will have an exceptionally tough time trying to scam you. And even if they do get inside your phone system they’ll need to work that little bit harder to reroute calls internationally.

Inside the admin panel of your phone system you will find something called a Toll Exception/Toll Barring Table. It’s here that you should specify which phone numbers cannot be dialled. We would suggest adding ‘090’ and ‘070’ (premium rate), ‘00’ (international) and ‘141’ (sometimes used at the start of an international dialling attempt).

Speak to our technical team today on 020 8090 5555. Depending on which system you have, our experienced engineers may be able to add calling restrictions on your behalf. If we can’t then we’ll certainly be able to point you in the right direction.

Stay vigilant and you’ll be much less likely to become a victim of phone hacking. Keep your staff informed, and educate them into the techniques that help to prevent phone system hacking.

1. Ask you staff to change their voicemail passwords regularly, and to never share their passwords with anyone else, ever.
2. Assign a ‘security champion’ in your business. Ask them to review call activity on a weekly or daily basis. It should only take two minutes, but it could save you thousands of pounds in the event that you do get hacked.
3. Educate your staff on the regularity of phone hacking. Industry magazine Comms Dealer estimates that 62% of dealers have one or more customers who have become a victim of phone hacking.
4. Make staff aware of bogus callers claiming to be from your telephone supplier. If anyone asks for access to your phone system, verify who they are first.
5. Use complex passwords wherever possible. Include symbols, capitalisation and numbers.
6. Stay vigilant and follow the steps in this guide!

Why not speak to one of our telecoms engineers to book a support call. We’ll guide you through the process of securing your system to help prevent phone hacking. Call us today on 020 8090 5555.