VoIP Security

VoIP technology enables you to take advantage of the numerous call handling and mobility features that small business expect in a modern small business telephone system and like many online services that rely on a username and password it is very important to ensure your VoIP login details are secure.

Toll Fraud

One of the biggest risks to VoIP users is that unscrupulous criminals can intrude into some PABX systems to get your username and password and once they have these details they can make as many calls to as many places as they like. The most common destinations are countries where the cost of calling is very high. This kind of fraud is called Toll Fraud and it is a federal offence in Australia. This page is designed to clearly identify this risk to all virion customers and explain what we do to limit this risk for you.

Toll Fraud commonly starts with access to a compromised or insecure telephone system and your telephone system is your responsibility. Often we’ll never see your phone system or have access to it’s setup so we clearly write in our terms of service that we are not responsible for any toll fraud that occurs. This is important for you to be aware of because although we can take steps to lock down the VoIP service on our platform there are also things which you and your IT consultant are aware of and manage.

How is Toll Fraud Discovered?

If it is happening on a large scale our systems will pick up that something is going wrong and we can act on it swiftly, but if it is only on a small scale then the only way to see if it is happening is to look at your monthly invoice and look for calls to these rare destinations. It will be fairly easily to spot very quickly, but you’ll need to be looking at your monthly call reports. We sent a monthly invoice and a call log which shows every destination as well as inbound calls and information about each call – it’s a great reconciliation tool.

Limit to International Calling Destinations

The easiest way to lock down a VoIP system is to limit the countries that you can call. By default we allow customers to call all destinations and only if requested do we limit the calling destinations.

Account Credit Limits

VoIP margins are very low so by default we expect all customers to go on our direct debit payment system. This ensures on time payment, but also ensures that we can keep your credit limit at a monthly level that represents your normal usage. If any toll fraud occurs your available credit limit will be reached and your service blocked temporarily but both you and us will be alerted immediately and we’ll be able to deal with that issue swiftly.