Businesses are being urged to protect themselves from the increasing threat of toll fraud.
The crime involves a telephone system being hacked into by a cyber criminal, who will make expensive international calls at the expense of someone else.
Whilst for an individual residential phone system, the risk may not seem too great, the threat is perhaps most significant for businesses.
This is due to the larger scale and undetectable nature of the crime. If a number of unmanned phones are hacked over the weekend, criminals have a significant period of opportunity to make expensive calls at the cost of the business – an amount which could reach over £4,000 for just one phone.
Given the growing risk of the fraud, businesses are being urged to act preventatively in order to avoid being faced with a large phone bill.
There are a number of ways that can minimise the risk of phone systems being hacked into:
- Encourage awareness and educate staff as to the risk of toll fraud.
- Review security on phone systems each quarter, and encourage employees to be alert to emerging vulnerabilities.
- Outside of office hours, set restrictions on international calls. Passwords can also be set up if international calls do need to be made.
