Business VoIP Providers Should Be Security Conscious

Business VoIP is woefully misunderstood for its voice quality in that too many are under the impression that it is inferior.

Broadband has improved over the years, so VoIP has improved as well. Today, packets are able to travel through the Internet extremely fast, delivering crisp, clear VoIP at a fraction of the cost of traditional telephony.

In spite of misunderstandings, some decision makers feel that VoIP is insecure, but the truth of the matter is there are plenty of sophisticated defense measures like firewalls, redundancy and encryption to ensure solid, reliable security. VoIP is safe in the same way online banking is safe, as they share the same data lines. Of course, there are proper security measures to put in place to ensure that VoIP is, in fact, ultra secure, and recent headlines put emphasis on securing VoIP lines.

Business VoIP fraud is a very real potential problem for any company and can be destructive. While protection from business VoIP fraud has improved significantly through the years, hackers are still at large and they are constantly coming up with new schemes and angles to break-in and wreak havoc.

That is why it is up to businesses and enterprises to protect their VoIP borders in addition to their data networks. Business VoIP is especially susceptible to fraud because of its inherent relationship to high-speed internet connections. The internet offers hackers both an easier point of entry than a traditional landline based phone as well as the possibility to sell more minutes.

There are some best practices that organizations can implement to avoid business VoIP fraud, including ensuring that all manufacturer default passwords for system administration are changed promptly, using lengthy and complex alphanumeric passwords.

In addition to secure passwords, organizations should set and enforce standards for complex passwords for voice message mailboxes. Require period password resets for these mailboxes.

VoIP is a complex technology and this complexity can lead to all types of vulnerabilities, however taking the proper precautions and using a few simple solutions will ensure that business VoIP security is nothing but a concern, not a reality.