5 Risks Of VOIP

It is easy for companies to successfully deploy a VoIP system, but once it is installed, they tend to ignore it all the way. However, remember that your security should be your priority, as the cybersecurity and privacy risks are continuously growing. Loss of employee and customer records is one of the most common results of security breaches, which can have negative repercussions on customer relationships and your brand reputation. Also, businesses should be aware that a security breach could go beyond customer data and disrupt their services – and also physically damage a network. Hence, It is important to be aware of some common security issues in VoIP systems so that you know how to stay alert and protected.

 Common VoIP security Issues

 1. Vishing

Vishing, is the voice-based scheme, similar to the e-mail phishing scheme, which occurs when attackers use ID spoofing in order to trick call recipients to give up sensitive data. These attackers pretend to be reputable business brands like banking institutions or credit card companies. After this, these attacks generally target end users, not the entire VoIP system, which can make it more difficult to prevent.

 2. Denial of Service Attacks

A DoS attack occurs when a hacker fills a VoIP network server with SIP call-signaling messages. This will consume all the available bandwidth and thus will slow down or stop the system traffic. This attack halts incoming and the outgoing VoIP calls and disrupts the flow of your daily business, calling for a loss in sales and lowering productivity. A DoS attack can also enable the hackers to get remote admin control of your servers so that the sensitive data can be stolen and expensive calls can be done on the brand’s account.

 3. Eavesdropping

This is one of the most common VoIP security threats. The audio streams are intercepted with no authorization, and thus the information from the conversations becomes vulnerable. Packet capture tools make it easier for the hackers to tap into any unencrypted VoIP traffic, and make the conversations easy and accessible. Most of the collected data from eavesdropping is used for theft of identity.

 4. Phreaking

This is another type of call fraud in which the hackers steal service from the service provider. Hackers who get into phreaking can change calling plans, add more credit to an account, and rack up calls on the account. This type of threat can lead to excessive charges on the brand’s account.

 5. Malware & Viruses 

While using software with a VoIP network, hardware and software get vulnerable to the attacks by malware, worms, and viruses. The softphone applications run on user systems, thus they are exposed to such malicious attacks. Such viruses invade a computer system, send spam, destroy information, and trace keystrokes to enable remote access. It has been found that financial data and credit card information tend to be the most vulnerable information due to such attacks.

All these seem scary, right? Well, don’t worry just yet. Even though VoIP has all these risks, a few premium options like 3CX offered by SPARK Services, is highly secure and you won’t have to worry about these security risks while using it. Interested? Call us today to get started!