Phone hacking/phreaking - RETELL RECORDERS

PABX hacking/phreaking/toll fraud is becoming increasingly widespread and is costing businesses globally $40 billion a year in unexpected telephone bills. PABX dial through fraud is carried out by fraudsters who hack into a phone system, often at night or at weekends when it is least likely to be detected, running up huge costs for the unsuspecting owners.

There are even websites dedicated for phone system hacking/PABX dial through fraud which is now becoming big business for organised criminals rather than just a wheeze for internet geeks. These fraudsters know that most companies are oblivious to the threat of phone system hacking. Telephone network operators whilst perhaps having fraud prevention departments to warn users about unexpected and excessive usage are generally unsympathetic to companies that have been hacked and make the unfortunate victim pay.

See the BBC website for news on PBX hacking and why you need Retell's Sense Firewall appliance to protect yourself as software firewalls can also fail.

How does phreaking happen?

The installation of a phone system and on-going management of users is a challenge even without the day-to-day running of your organisation. Minor tasks such as setting and changing voice mail passwords are often forgotten or people use a password that is easy to remember and as such easy to guess. Fraudsters know this and routinely and randomly dial in to companies, locate a voicemail that is not secure and dial out to anywhere they choose. They will occasionally use a network of telephone systems to reduce detection rates and even if a robust system of changing voicemail passwords is in place hackers could attack the system via the remote diagnostic access. Using software available on the internet they can hack the engineering or manufacturer developer passwords in order to reprogramme the PABX. Unfortunately voice security is a widespread issue but not often publicised as knowing that a company has been hacked can weaken investor and customer confidence.

How can it be stopped?

Retell's Sense Voice Firewall is an anti-fraud system that monitors dialled calls and electronically disconnects any pre-set unauthorised numbers. The Voice Firewall applies your rules, set to match your business hours all day, every day, in and out of working hours. You are in control, you can stop all calls. Or perhaps at night and weekends you want to allow calls to special numbers, emergency services and staff home number. You can even limit the number of simultaneous calls; just leaving one outgoing channel available for emergency calls. The functionality of the phone system and the network is maintained at all times for all other calls. Unlike software only so-called fraud prevention solutions that say they are able to control phreaking, Sense works on all phone systems, does not need PBX software upgrades that can be expensive or go out of date, and you can set the rules yourself rather than having them set remotely by the company from Asia.

Double protection with Call Analyser

Sense Voice Firewall, can be purchased, leased or provided as a managed service either as a standalone system or as part of our call recording and call management system-Sense Call Analyser. Call Analyser and Voice Firewall used together can be a powerful tool to identify fraudulent activity, day and night as well as managing and reporting on legitimate call activity, identifying your most productive employees, improving training and protecting against 'who said what' disputes.