VoIP toll fraud on the rise

Sipera Systems, a unified communications security specialist, says it has seen a rise in toll fraud among enterprsies and service providers that it uncovers during the security architecture reviews and product deployments it has done in recent months.

Sipera said these cases of toll fraud of cost organization losses ranging from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The company identified the three most common vulnerabilities that lead to VoIP toll fraud.

• Telecom Connectivity Vulnerabilities: Enterprises that use Session Border Controllers (SBC) to secure VoIP and unified communications traffic risk a breach caused by configuration errors, SBC vulnerabilities or functional limitations.
• Application-level vulnerabilities: Many communications systems are vulnerable to fraud because they have weak passwords and authentication systems.
• End-point vulnerabilites: Enterprises haven’t instituted much security on users’ devices, especially as unified communications applications are extended to mobile devices, which are much easier to lose than a laptop.