How Hosted PBX Upgrades Your Business Security

Most businesses that choose to migrate to a hosted PBX system will do so primarily with cost savings in mind. Lots of money can be saved with hosted PBX right across the board – lower call costs, zero (or next to zero) deployment costs, savings on resources, and increases in efficiency and productivity all mount up in favour of the business that switches to a cloud based telephony solution.

Secondly, it is often the abundance of professional features that attracts businesses to the hosted PBX option. Auto attendants, music on hold, find me/follow me call forwarding, and all the great benefits associated with unified communications – these are all things that the modern business wants, and the modern customer expects, from a communications system.

Third in line is the disaster recovery aspect of hosted PBX. With an on-site PBX system, businesses leave themselves vulnerable to disasters – be they natural, or man-made human errors or cyberattacks. But when your PBX system is deployed in the cloud, businesses are essentially shielded from such threats. Even if the office succumbs to floods or other weather damage, the hosted PBX solution will mean that business can continue and the phone lines stay open, since all that’s needed is to transfer any calls straight from the cloud to any other phone or phones that the business specifies.

And then – and only then, in a lot of cases – are businesses enamoured by the security benefits that hosted PBX can offer. This, indeed, almost seems bizarre, considering the risks involved if a malicious cyberattacker gets what he/she wants. But perhaps it’s just human nature to believe that such a thing won’t happen to you – until it does.

All Businesses Are Potential Targets

It’s not uncommon for an SME to believe that they are too small to be targeted. This is nonsense, of course. The headlines are made when the likes of Sony succumb to a cyberattack, simply because they are a global company and it’s big news.

But, just like not every company that relies on tech can be the size of Sony, not every cyberattacker has the gear, the expertise or the commitment to go after the big fish. I’m sure that you will notice all the phishing scams that appear in your email inbox nearly every day. Stealing information is what cybercrime is all about – so what makes you think that your phone lines are any less of a target than your computer files?

Identifying The Risks

Depending on your industry, or what type of business you’re running, you may very well fall into the category of those that aren’t particularly concerned about the security of phone calls. However, if you were to just stop and think about it for a

second, you might actually be surprised at the amount of sensitive information that gets communicated over the phone.

True, you’ll probably be sensible enough not to be divulging company secrets, but what about other information that is worth protecting?

So, what is worth protecting?

Put simply, any information you can think of that could be used inappropriately if it ended up in the wrong hands. Employee addresses, credit card numbers, banking details, security codes and passwords – you may trust whomever is on the other end of the line with this information, but how can you be sure that no one else is listening in?

And there are other risks, too. Some attacks might be to try and gain access to your VoIP line so that they can make calls on it at your expense – by piggybacking your system, they’ll be able to make long distance and even international calls for free, because it’s you that’s paying for it.

Other organized attacks might be to gain information such as phone numbers or IP addresses, which can then either be sold on to competitors, or used to redirect calls away from your business.

You may even find yourself in a position where a disgruntled employee or ex-employee attempts to disrupt the network so that downtime is suffered and the business’s reputation damaged.

All of these things – and more besides – are real, everyday threats to companies no matter what their size.

Hosted PBX And Security

Businesses are of course right to turn to hosted PBX for all the cost savings and improved communications features that the solution offers. But, what they’ll also get is improved security.

Since your PBX system will be hosted in the cloud, the provider has a vested interest in keeping your phone lines secure and free from malicious attacks. As such, many security advancements have been deployed to improve the ongoing integrity and privacy of any calls that you make with hosted PBX. And the beauty of it is, since the PBX is maintained in the cloud, you won’t even have to worry about managing the security on your own equipment.

Here a just a few ways in which a hosted PBX solution will enable you to upgrade your business security.

Encryption Advanced call encryption will be used to ensure that anyone who tries to listen on a phone call or acquire the signal and steal data will only find an encrypted message instead. This indeed is more secure than any encryption on a regular cellular phone call, which only encrypts the radio portion on the device.

Authorized Access Only It’s very easy to set up your hosted PBX system so that only authorized users can access it. Furthermore, you will also be able to tweak the settings to limit the number of calls that users can make, or put a cap on call length. It will also be possible to configure the security settings that will restrict authorized access to certain functions and features so that only managers or leaders can use them – this might aid in the prevention of accidental downloads of malware or viruses (which is a more common occurrence than you might think).

Monitor The System A hosted PBX system will enable you to easily connect to any other area of the business that is also connected to the PBX system or VoIP, and monitor all incoming and outgoing data such as emails, electronic faxes, downloads, website visits, internet usage, and more. This will mean that you will always have an all-seeing overview of all data that goes in and comes out of your network.

Call Recording More than just a convenient tool for remembering details and instructions, call recording will also enhance security. If there is ever an issue with possible security breaches, recording your calls can keep you protected.

Resource Efficiency Since your IT team will no longer have to worry about the security of your PBX system, which will of course be hosted in the cloud, they can concentrate their attentions on the security measures on the rest of your computer network. This reallocation of resources will mean that you can expect greater internet security all round, not just on your phone lines.

To learn more about how a Hosted PBX system can upgrade your business security, contact the experts at net2phone any time at 866-978-8260.