Is a cloud or on-premise PBX more secure?

While both systems have their appeals, a cloud PBX solution offers more security benefits than an on-prem which are limited to what they can offer. But, an on-prem can be safe as long as best security practices are applied and maintained. Hosted platforms provide users access to telecom fraud detection and prevention tools, full transparency into data, quick setups, recovery routing, scalability and optimization tools. As an example, AVOXI offers automatic and intentional high-security standards. Your network admins don’t have to worry about firewalls or router configurations, firmware updates, periodic security scans or misconfigurations with a CPaaS provider that uses end-to-end WebRTC encryption to ensure a highly stable and secure business communications network.

What are the biggest obstacles to dealing with a telecom fraud incident?

Fast-action and quick response is required from each team member involved in the incident. One of the biggest obstacles is assertive communication . Many of the communications sent between AVOXI and our clients are truncated by multiple blockers, such as out-of-office (OOO) hours, holidays, vacations, weekends or non-existent contacts. During our traffic validation attempts, many times, we have to deal with all those blockers that lead to two possible scenarios: The calls are valid, and we’re interrupting legitimate traffic, or… The calls are illegitimate due to criminal activity. The financial repercussions increase as time passes waiting for confirmation from one of our clients. So to overcome this, we recommend building work teams that can be attentive to receive calls and emails to validate or deny our queries about suspicious activity. By assigning individuals or groups to monitor suspicious call patterns and keep your contact list up-to-date, you can better handle and reduce telecom fraud incidents.

What’s the best way to secure remote access to my hosted platform?

Always use a VPN ( Virtual Private Network ) to connect remotely to websites. VPNs offer direct access to your internal network through an encrypted tunnel. This means that no matter where you are, even on a public Wi-Fi network, your communications and the administration of your remote PBX will always be protected by the VPN’s security.

What are some best practices in case of vulnerability?

Existing vulnerabilities require special handling, and for this reason, they’re ranked from low to medium, high to critical. How do you do this? Begin here: Measure the impact of the vulnerability on your teams and business. Measure the probability or likelihood of the vulnerability. Measure the complexity of the attack. Once these three pieces are assembled, begin to collect more information such as, whether the remediation will bring more significant impact (severe outages) and if additional maneuvers are required (update another application, program, library, etc.) that could potentially cause the interruption of your business continuity. And once these assessments are added to your company’s vulnerability remediation plan, you must: Set up a time in which this remediation will take place. Communicate these actions to all of your staff. Communicate these actions to all potentially-affected clients. Carry out the verification that this vulnerability has been successfully resolved with utmost care and satisfaction. That all of your services continue to operate normally.

How do spam calls happen and how can I prevent them?

Spam calls to your PBX A fraudster has discovered a free number that lands on your PBX. Unfortunately, the IVR is often poorly built (misconfigured) and doesn’t end the call after 3 failed attempts. Fraudsters do this to map your PBX and discover applications like DISA, callback, voicemail callback, etc., that they can later exploit to interconnect calls to premium destinations. Prevention tip : Mitigate spam calls to your PBX by… Building intelligent IVRs that terminate outsiders’ failed attempts into essential applications. Creating strong passwords for your voicemail user accounts. Checking your CDRs to identify correlations from source PBX numbers. Blocking all source numbers from identified spammers. 2 . Spam calls to your team member Fraudsters do this to identify the working hours of your company and staff so they can exploit vulnerabilities or attack your PBX without the supervision or observance of anyone on your work team. Prevention tip: It’s important to provide consistent internal security awareness training to educate your staff on what to look out for and report suspicious activity. Oftentimes the fraudsters use social engineering attacks (vishing) to manipulate employees to divulge information. The phisher makes phone calls to the user and asks the user to dial a number. This is to bypass a call, gain privileged access to another application or make a bigger attack elsewhere. 3. Spam calls directly to your devices Fraudsters can recognize that you use a device already out of its useful life, or with old firmware (software) with some vulnerabilities. They recognize this equipment through Open Source intelligence search engines like Shodan . Once the target country and device version are searched, the attacker can identify from which IP address you’re connected to. Their next action would be to send you the spam (test calls) to try to exploit your device, bypassing calls to premium destinations. Prevention tip: You can easily reduce or avoid spam calls to your devices by… Removing EOL devices from your network. The lifespan of most devices on the market is set to 5 years. Keep a strict watch on the communications from your hardware providers. (i.e. security and productivity improvements and bug-fix announcements) Use a personal password on your device. Never use factory default settings and change your passwords every 6 months. Separate your telephony network from the data network.

Katharine Kellar, Author at AVOXI

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