The recent cyber-attack that Optus suffered exposed the personal information of 1.1 million customers. The customers’ details were then put up for sale and Optus had to rush to do some intensive damage control.
Cyber-attacks are very common. That said, we only hear about them when it happens to a large organisation with millions of customers and ends up making the news headlines. All businesses, whether they’re small, medium or large, are at risk. There are individuals that do this as a full-time job in an effort to expose peoples’ personal information and data to make some easy money. There’s no way to stop them from trying, however, with the right practices and by choosing the most secure software and infrastructure you can definitely keep them away from your system and data. Being proactive is the key.
3CX PBX Security Features
3CX has developed and implemented some truly advanced security features for their PBX. With these in place you can rest assured that any hackers trying to hack your PBX will not succeed. What are these? Let’s take a look!
- Global IP Blacklisting – All 250K PBXs worldwide are monitored and if any form of attack or hacking attempt is picked up, that IP is added to the global blacklist. The list is synched and updated every 2 hours.
- Block brute force password hacking – there’s a system in place that blocks the brute force guessing of passwords for extensions, admin accounts and SIP Trunks.
- Blocking of outbound calls – in the event that the PBX detects unusual outbound calls being made either in large numbers or out of office hours, these are blocked.
- Restricted Access – 3CX offers a “Restrictions” option which enables the admin to restrict connectivity to the Management Console only to a specified list of IPs, minimizing the Console’s exposure to outsiders.
- Regular Security Checks – every new build of 3CX is checked by dedicated security analysts.
- Pen-testing – every PBX is pen-tested to ensure maximum security
- 24-hour monitoring – all hosted and StartUP instances are monitored 24/7.
DIY Security Tips
There are also some things that you can do yourself to further boost your PBX and data security.
- Passwords – ensure that all users have implemented strong passwords for their extensions and are saved in a secure place. Same goes for admin passwords.
- Update your PBX – make sure you update your PBX with every new update which always includes security improvements.
- Firmware update – update the firmware on your IP Phones as some firmware security flaws have been known to allow attackers to turn the SIP phone into a listening device.
- Keep your OS up to date – if you’re running your PBX on-premise make sure that the OS is up to date with all security features. If you choose to have your PBX hosted in the cloud this is something you won’t have to worry about.
- Non-trusted networks -Place your VoIP phones behind a firewall with restrictive access control rules to ensure they do not access any non-trusted networks.
- Monitor network usage – many hacking techniques tend to increase your network usage once they manage to penetrate it. Therefore, make sure to constantly monitor your network and set alerts in the event that there’s a sudden spike in network usage.
- Choose your SIP Trunk – make sure you choose a SIP Trunk provider that also offers enhanced security features and can be integrated with your PBX.
It goes without saying that every system, network and business have unique needs and requirements. Therefore, you may not be able to implement all the above because your setup does not permit it.
Feel free to reach out to our team for a consultation on how you can increase your PBX and network security and ensure your and your customers’ data are safe from hackers and cyber-attacks.
