phone hacking still a problem

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

It is interesting that everything is becoming a terrorist threat. Djf


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39426-2003Jun10.html?nav=hpto
p_tb


washingtonpost.com 

Phone Networks Open Doors for Hackers

By Brian Krebs
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 10, 2003; 12:11 PM


Corporate America spends untold amounts of time and money every year to
ensure that its data systems are secure from cyberattacks, but there's one
relatively low-tech flank that is often lightly guarded -- office telephone
systems.

Federal law-enforcement officials said last week that they are tracking
numerous reports of hackers who gain access to corporate voice mail and
telephone systems to launch Internet attacks.

The hackers, according to the Department of Homeland Security, tap into
corporate phone systems -- called private branch exchange (PBX) systems --
using them to make long-distance calls to Internet service providers in
other cities or overseas. They can work anonymously because the service
providers see the activity as coming from within the company whose phone
network was compromised.

The FBI is pursuing "several investigations" into the problem, which the
Department of Homeland Security last week identified as a growing trend in
the hacking community.

<snip>

"A potential terrorist could couple a denial-of-service attack on a local
9-1-1 system with setting off a bomb nearby," Murray said. "That's really
our worst nightmare in a situation like this."

The FBI is urging companies to review and tighten security around their PBX
and voicemail systems. A tutorial on locking them down is available from the
National Institute of Standards & Technology at:
http://www.csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-24/sp800-24pbx.pdf

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