A company wouldn’t run a computer network without some sort of virus protection or firewall. Yet even with these safeguards in place, they still can leave an access point for malicious hackers. That would be their VoIP phone line.
Toll fraud can earn malicious hackers billions of dollars a year and causes more monetary damages than credit card fraud. According to the New York Times, this sort of threat mostly affects SMBs. Worse is that when an SMB is a victim, they can get a phone bill as high as a half a million dollars for the previous month. While their business is trying to handle the dispute with their local phone company, their communications system could be shut down.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation perpetrators of toll fraud are highly organized syndicates that can operate from various locations worldwide. In 2009, an international toll fraud ring paid hackers in the Philippines to target the telephone exchanges of corporations in the United States and had stolen 12 million minutes of long-distance telephone time. Fortunately, the ring was eventually broken up by U.S. law enforcement, but not before they racked up approximately $55 million in fraudulent charges.
When protecting their networks from viruses and malicious software a company will install programs and firewalls designed to monitor and protect their computer network in real time. Yet, companies should also protect their phone lines from toll fraud. To fight against toll fraud a company needs protection that works in real time, and not only monitors their network but continuously monitor billions of calls across multiple networks anywhere in the world. The TollShield® SaaS platform does this and more.
Just like how Trojan horse viruses hide and adapt, and virus protection software updates to fight it, toll fraud can also be cleverly hidden and constantly changing. TollShield® uses patent-pending technology that allows it self-learn from global and network data. This allows it to detect patterns that are larger than a single network or billing cycle. So your toll revenue is safe from ever more sophisticated and elaborate frauds. This means that TollShield® continuously monitors your network in real time, and detects suspicious traffic patterns as they emerge.
As TollShield® is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform it does not require additional hardware, or embedded software, to be installed on a company’s network. This allows the protection that TollShield® provides to grow as your network grows. It also allows for protection to be deployed alongside any hardware brand, and across component networks globally.