Hackers running up telephone bills - is this a real problem?

OliveOyl_2

This isn't a home phone query really, but where do I go for a business line query??

Our line supplier has sent us a letter warning of hackers using our line to run up bills of many thousands of pounds and us not discovering until the monthly bill comes in. They are offering to sell us software to secure our line. :rolleyes:

How real a problem is this?
What protection for this do we already have? (for eg If someone fraudulently uses my credit card number, I can suspend the transactions until the problem is sorted)

My gut reaction is that this is scaremongering, but I wanted to check other peoples experience.

utilitybroker

It can be a problem see this recent post.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1532161

jadziad

Depends. The general rule is that any business PBX system must be kept up to date with patches and must not use default or simple PINs/accounts or CLI-based "authentication" for remote people dialling in (CLI can very occasionally be faked).

Otherwise, the link in the above post mentions "software", which perhaps means PCs with dial-up modems/faxes, which are virtually extinct nowadays in the age of broadband.