Phreaking out!!
Imagine getting a monthly phone bill for almost $400,000 when your
normal bill is less than $1000! This is exactly what happened recently to
a victim of PABX hacking or phreaking.
 "With
all the precautions being undertaken to prevent computer network hacking
these days, it is surprising how little mention is made about phreaking or
PABX hacking,” said Denis Rowe, national marketing manager, Macquarie
Telecom. “While perhaps not as common as the current spate of phishing
scams hitting Australia, it is lethal in its cost to business.”
According to the US-based, Communications Fraud Control Association,
annual worldwide telecom fraud losses are believed to be in the range of
US $35 - $40 billion.
In Australia, over the past few years, a steadily increasing number of
attacks on corporate PABX and Voice Mail systems have been recorded. And
yet, while companies are investing heavily to protect IT systems from
hackers, they seem to have forgotten about the telephone system.
Phreakers breech PABX security and re-originate calls to anywhere in
the world. While it has been going on for many years, the widespread use
of email, the Internet and mobile communications has left company ‘weak
spots' open to exploitation by ever more sophisticated phreakers.
According to Rowe, businesses are losing hundreds of thousands of
dollars every year.
“Phreakers don't discriminate between small or large business – in some
instances the costs can be enough to put a company out of business,” he
said.
Recent Australian attacks resulted in individual bills amounting to
hundreds of thousands of dollars in just a few weeks.
Minimising the risk?
There are a number of simple precautions business and government can
put in place to lower the risk of phreaking. These include:
-
Change all default passwords on remote access to PABX and Voice
Mail systems
-
Potentially disconnect remote programming modems when not in use
-
Implement a policy of monthly changes to personal voicemail and
remote access pins
Macquarie Telecom customers benefit from the added advantage of
VolumeControl, a management tool which monitors all outbound traffic. An
embedded alert service flags call patterns that are unusual for the
business and might indicate hacking. The alerts are provided via email or
SMS within 24 hours of Macquarie receiving the traffic reports. | 
