We usually associate digital security invasions with massive breaks at multinational companies with billions of dollars at stake. A study by Accenture revealed that 70% of CEOs say they’re experiencing an enormous increase in cyber attacks.
However, with the increase in the digitalization of small companies, most of today’s data is based on the cloud. This includes private information, like phone numbers, addresses, and credit card information.
This factor, allied with the lack of proper protection, makes businesses of this size a potential target for digital criminals seeking to take advantage. In fact, according to CNBC, 43% of cyberattacks are aimed at small businesses, with only 14% able to defend themselves, according to Accenture.
Against this backdrop, with the growing popularity of Voice over the Internet (VoIP) driven by cost reductions and increased productivity over traditional phones, many IT managers still wonder:
Can a VoIP phone be hacked?
The answer is “Yes”. Just like any other digital device, a VoIP phone can be hacked. Hackers do this to either gain access to your account to make calls, or access the calls themselves between you and your customers.
However, with the right provider and a few simple security measures, VoIP, like any online service, can be hardened against even the most determined attacks.
In this article, we will explain how hackers invade companies via VoIP, the most common scams and how you can make your device less likely of invasions. Let’s take a look.
How does VoIP security work?
To understand why VoIP technology is vulnerable to hacker attacks, first, we have to know how VoIP security works.
In the past, while harder to hack, traditional analogue or POTS phones were vulnerable to internal hacks by accessing the telephones network interfaces or TNI. Hacking attacks were prominent in the 90s, using someone else infrastructure to get free calling.
Even in today’s modern GSM mobile world, CIOs and their mobile employers continue to invest significant time and resources in protocols and best practices to defend against unauthorized access.
Because VOIP is a service that’s generally deployed across the public internet, VoIP attacks are sophisticated and often superbly planned. They have front-line hackers, intermediaries and brokers selling access to compromised customer networks that are often defrauded months and occasionally years following the initial breach.
VoIP x Traditional phones: which is safer?
While traditional service providers are rigid in their belief that responsibility for customer premise equipment lies 100% against their customers, in reality, VoIP security is shared between the internet service provider and the customer.
Today’s leading VOIP providers deploy a growing array of smart monitoring and management AI tools looking for suspicious intrusion, suspicious proxy firewalls and unusual calling patterns.
Like any online service, ultimately, financial responsibility for password management, firewall ports and hardening CPE must reside with the customer; VOIP providers are constantly fending off a tsunami of sustained attacks and will be aware of practical advice and strategies customers can take to harden their own VOIP and generally public-facing internet networks equally.
Hackers use different methods to intercept the data passing through via VoIP and use it to their advantage. This could be extra harmful if you have any credit card information registered on your device.
Another thing that hackers usually do it’s using your phone number to do long-distance calls to other countries. We call this type of fraud of Toll-fraud. According to a study by Trend Micro, it has already got U$ 27 billion in prejudice. Let’s understand the most common VoIP hacking methods.
Types of VoIP Hacking
As we discussed before, hackers use different methods to access your data. Some of them are harder to intercept, and others are relatively straightforward.
Malware
Usually, these attacks occur via clickable malware. Hackers typically send these fraudulent links via email pretending to be other companies, and sometimes, the content looks legit.
Suppose someone inside your company clicks on this link. In that case, it could download a virus that can invade your device and do anything they want. This includes making long-distance calls or accessing your company’s and customers’ private information.
VoIP Phishing or Vishing
This attack consists of the hacker calling you using ID spoofing, which it’s a way to appear as a legit caller ID and number. They pretend to be someone from other institutions, like your bank or health insurance and ask for private information. Usually, they ask to verify this information several times and sound convincing, which leaves the victim confused and vulnerable.
DDoS attack
In Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, the rouge intention is to overwhelm the network with the ultimate aim of blackmail or extortion. Because the attack rarely if any penetrates the victim, businesses are often confronted with ransom demands to stop the attack.
This script activates remote computers that are hard to track due to VPN. Then, they flood the VoIP system and make it inoperable.
All of this must be scary. However, there are several ways to identify if your system it’s vulnerable to hackers. We’re going to discuss this on the following topic.
How to identify a hacker attack on VoIP?
Do you want to protect your phone from hackers? Then, use these methods below to identify the vulnerability of your system.
Inconsistent call historic
Weekly checking your call can be an effective way to identify a possible invasion of your system. Most VoIP systems must give functionality to check your call history with every information you need, like call duration, numbers, etc. On the 2talk system, we call this Call Records CDR. Suppose some unknown numbers start to appear on your phone bill. Since most plans have a geographical limitation, you can quickly identify any irregularity.
Huge phone bills
In addition to the last topic, a sudden increase in your phone bills can signal that some hacker is taking advantage of your technology to make long-distance calls, for example.
Slow system
Unusual bandwidth spikes on your VoIP can signal a DDoS attack. You can identify this if you notice a sudden wave of incoming traffic from the exact location and ID.
How to secure your VoIP from hackers?
Despite the danger, you can apply several strategies to protect your VoIP phone against hacker attacks. Let’s know these methods now.
1. Use Strong passwords
Instead of using default passwords, try to use strong passwords for every user on your team. This measure is effortless but could make it extra hard for hackers to access your account.
2. SIP over TLS
Where possible, always prefer to use TLS over port 443 identified as HTTPS. TLS is hugely important. The issue of TLS certificates is the relationship of the significant trust between the main players in Google, Microsoft, Apple, Firefox etc and their authorized certificate authorizers, who in turn go to great lengths to ensure the final grant of the TLS certificates are made to reputable service providers.
However, it’s a rare event that a company that has gone to the effort of purchasing a certificate from a reputable authorizer would turn out to be a fraud.
Equally, if your VOIP service provider offers no TLS certificate (identified as the transport is UDP / 5060) then look for another provider.
3. Encrypt your voice data
In addition to encrypting the SIP traffic, it’s possible to also encrypt the media or voice part of the conversation. While not as effective as the SIP over TLS above, SRTP or Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol is another legitimate strategy for protecting the spoken part of your VOIP service.
SRTP is a cryptographic protocol that applies the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to data packets and provides message authentication. 2talks, for example, has HTTPS encryption.
4. Activate Network Adress Translation
Network address translation (NAT) is a router feature. Simply put, it allows your private IP address to become “invisible” to outsiders. Only people inside your Lan can see it and use it.
5. Choose a reliable VoIP provider.
When choosing your provider, you must consider more than the price. Make sure to investigate the history of this company to see if they’re reliable and have experience in VoIP technology. Most importantly, if the provider has 24 hours support always available to help you in emergencies.
