atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Panasonic Telephones & Systems Call Forward and System Security

We have had a handful of clients over the years get hit with HUGE telephone bills due to someone hacking into the system and doing whatever they do so they can place international calls using our clients phone system. I am not exactly sure how these individuals do this so I am not exactly sure the best way to prevent it. When speaking with tech support they suggest that you disable call forward to CO and Transfer to CO in COS. However, if we do that it prevents users from forwarding calls to their cell phones. We install Communication Assistant with almost every install we do. We also train users how to setup presence control in CA and have calls forward to cell phones by changing their presence. This is an important feature that we do not want to disable. Is there a way to make the system more secure while not disabling features that clients want to use?

Take a closer look at the TVA and make sure you upgrade to the latest version (3.1?). It has the patch that restricts 9xx access. In the meantime, you can also let the users CF to a ICD number, then take your 6xx numbers and assign them to cell phones. Then, a CF to 6xx will be set to forward out to the cells.

If you run a continuous trace to a file in the VM, you'll find where the hacking is coming from. It usually involves a transfer to extension 91x. The VM blindly does the transfer and places the call to a live trunk, predialing 1x. You might also restrict 0 and 1 from the VM extensions if all of your cells are local.

Carl