Any savvy business manager today can rattle off the positive ‘whys’ of switching to VoIP, with cost savings being the first one usually mentioned. But as with any new technology, as soon as it hits the market, the more nefarious members of society start looking for ways to exploit it for ill-gotten gain. And VoIP has not gone unmarked.
In a recent piece on CloudgeWedge.com, technology writer Hadley Jones looked at the newest threat to VoIP, Telephony Denial of Service, or TDOS.
“Telephony denial of service is the blocking of your voice-over-IP communication links to stop you from making or receiving calls,” Hadley said. “This can be a serious problem for commercial companies that have standardized on VoIP systems. It can literally be life-threatening if the attackers target emergency service organizations such as hospitals. The increase in this kind of attack has already prompted the Department of Homeland Security in the U.S. to ask that victims contact it or the FBI to help counter the phenomenon.”
The attackers’ methods are deceptively simple. An automated script simply dials a target phone number, hangs up, dials again and keeps doing so, so that no one can effectively prevent any other callers from getting through. For companies that need to keep their phones lines open (who doesn’t?), this be a business-killer.
“TDoS attackers have been phoning in themselves to demand ransom payments, with the threat of a real TDoS to follow if the money is not paid immediately,” Hadley notes. “With Caller ID spoofing and anonymous credit card accounts to receive payoffs, it may be impossible for victims to identify their cyber-aggressors.”
There are some options available to deter such attacks, but Hadley says the best offense is a good defense.
“The biggest step forward may however be in raising business awareness of such threats,” he says. “That may mean taking a lead from the problems already caused in other parts of the world, notably Russia and Eastern Europe, rather than waiting for them to happen locally and having to scramble to fix the situation and get back to normal.”
What kind of security does your phone system have? If you don’t know, it might be worth looking into.
Edited by Maurice Nagle