Republished from TMCnet.com
The scramble to adopt VoIP and cloud-based phone services means enterprises and service providers alike need to be extra vigilant when it comes to security. Thankfully, there are a number of simple measures businesses of all sizes can take to ensure proper privacy and security procedures are being followed.
A recent article from My Business Voice, an Australian VoIP solutions provider, published on WhaTech highlights what businesses can do to ensure proper security as they migrate to VoIP and cloud-based telecom solutions. One of the best things a company can do is to be aware of the risks associated with IP-based services as well as implementing well known and trusted security measures. This is a must, and service providers should also be part of this process to ensure the highest levels of security possible are achieved.
The first part of this undertaking is ensuring service providers have several layers of security on their end. The customer premise requires a firewall, of course, but it must be configured properly to ensure only the necessary ports are left open. Additionally, IP addresses should be monitored and blocked after a certain number of unsuccessful access attempts.
Service providers should also be providing call encryption and providing a VPN for remote users when possible. Securing devices themselves is obviously necessary and multi-layer passwords are advisable across the board. Ensuring service providers stay on top of regular software updates and security patches is also extremely important to security as well as reliability of services.
Finally, VoIP and hosted PBX (News – Alert) solutions require proper monitoring and management to ensure solutions run smoothly and securely and without service interruptions. It’s important for customers to determine what types of monitoring options are available to them and ensure they are being properly implemented and used.
