Secure access to mobile phone voicemail is possible

The phone hacking News of the World story does not want to go away – MPs have backed calls for a new investigation into allegations, that in 2007, News of the World journalists hacked into the mobile phone voicemail of well known political figures.

Using mobile phone provided voicemail is inherently insecure, the fact that the mobile providers’ numbers are standard and you can dial them from any phone, not just mobile, is not a good start. And what’s more, it is often impossible for the average user to know whether someone is tampering with any of their received voicemails.

If those who were hacked worked for organisations that had installed and used an independent and secure unified messaging platform, chances are (if it was properly administered and managed) this would never have happened.

Why?

• You have to know your unique PIN number to pick up your voicemail
• Unified Messaging supports both remote phone users and office based staff
• Unified messaging platforms provide secure options for voice mail, which can be set up using ‘rules’ to meet the level of security and needs of the individual and company they work for
• Messages are held within the organisations’ infrastructure, not on a third party network, over which administrators have no security controls.

How?

• The messaging platform seamlessly takes the place of the mobile network provider’s answer phone services
• The users’ mobile phone is very simply reconfigured via the handset to automatically forward calls to the telephone number at work at the point it would normally go to voicemail if unanswered
• Go to your mobile phone menu, choose divert option and enter your unique pin number
• The unified messaging solution then handles the calls in your company’s secure environment
• Users access their messages from their mobile or landline with a unique PIN number.

The security benefits are…

• There are never any messages held on the mobile providers’ server. If anyone tries to access any voicemail inbox for the UK phone providers, even if they hack into the mailbox, there are no messages as the user does not need it.
• If the hacker realises that they need to hack into the voice box of a third party unified messaging system, this will very challenging. Multiple unsuccessful attempts to access the voicemail can lock the mailbox – say after 3 attempts. An administrator can be alerted using enterprise management tools. The attempts are logged on the system.
• Rather than adhering to conventional 4 digit access pin numbers, administrators can force users to select an irregular number of digits on the PINs – such as 5 or 6 digits. Users will probably hate it, but it makes it more secure.
• Facilities to prompt users to change their security pin on a regular basis, plus the ability to stop users reverting to previous pin numbers.
• Restrict access to messages by only allowing users to call from a designated phone number or internal handsets. Alternatively, if you don’t want users accessing their voicemail box from your organisations front messaging menu, you can issue them with a bespoke number for message retrieval only.
• The system reports on who logs on and when.

Built in security:

• Recognition of specific phone numbers to allow access
• Incorrect cut off
• Mailbox lockout if tampering is attempted
• Instant and visual indication if anyone has listened to a message, even if it is only to the first few seconds
• Phone records, so any false numbers trying to gain access can be traced
• Users can be forced to change passwords regularly.

In addition to the benefits of heightened security, mobile workers no longer have to learn multiple voice messaging systems and callers can choose automatic transfer when listening to a voicemail message, instead of having to hang up and redial.

Unified messaging platforms deliver much more than just mobile messaging security, they give you advanced voice mail, call processing, unified messaging and speech-enabled capabilities as well.

Want to know more?

Contact us enquiries@processflows.co.uk or 01962 835053.