5 of the Biggest Unified Communications Risks
(And what to do about them)
You know your unified communications system helps you better serve your customers, but is the platform secure?
Here’s what you need to know:
When it comes to strategies for improving your business efficiency, your unified communications system likely tops your list. Unfortunately, without the proper security precautions, these systems can leave you vulnerable to breaches. Given the critical information that passes through your communications center, you want to make sure that you understand the major threats facing your system and what you can do to protect yourself. Here is what you need to know.
Protecting Your Unified Communications Center From Cybersecurity Risks
Risk #1: The vulnerability of your data center
Your data center stores valuable communication data. Regardless of whether or not you run your own servers, you want to make sure that your centers do not fall victim to cybersecurity attacks that would dismantle your business data and make it nearly impossible to keep your business up and running.
How to protect yourself:
To protect your data center, you need to follow any outlined protocols for backing up the data. Keeping on top of these best practices can ensure that you always have an updated backup of your data if your center does get breached.
Additionally, regularly maintain the systems to avoid leaving any openings for cybercriminals because you failed to patch any gaps or holes. Software developers will often issue updates and patches to improve efficiency and make sure any problem areas are corrected.
Finally, make sure the information passing through your data center receives the necessary encryption. This provides another level of security and helps avoid providing hackers with opportunities to easily access data. It also gives you a greater opportunity to track them and stop them.
Risk #2: Security controls to protect employee communications
Your employees will have independent applications that allow them to track their communication with the customers they engage. You want to protect this information from unauthorized outsiders.
How to protect yourself:
The best strategy for protecting your communication systems lies in establishing strong security controls. Set up authentication protocols and require employees to go through identification steps that ensure that only authorized employees can access the information.
Risk #3: The flexibility of your network
Network flexibility offers some benefits for your employees and organization, including greater opportunities for remote work by empowering employees to do their work without relying on your network. However, businesses need to be able to protect their organization even when outside networks are used to access the unified communications system.
How to protect yourself:
As businesses transition to remote work opportunities, VPNs have become a critical component of the technology stack. Using these systems to provide an additional level of protection for employees is essential.
Businesses should also reserve for themselves the ability to deny access and information to devices that fail to meet security requirements. If you operate on a BYOD system, authorized devices must meet a minimum standard of security before accessing your data.
Finally, you want to only provide access and information to those who absolutely need it. The most confidential information, for example, should only be open to top-level employees and not anyone with a login.
Risk #4: The threat of fraud
VoIP fraud can open your organization up to confidentiality problems and illicit charges that can result in tremendous losses. You do not want your lines to get hacked and used for unauthorized calls or have scammers access potentially sensitive information.
How to protect yourself:
Businesses should focus on monitoring the calls that come into their systems to help them monitor for scam calls. Protective systems that track call volume or even biometric systems that can recognize voices will both provide organizations with an additional level of protection. If a suspicious call does come in, businesses can use the information to better uncover the malicious actor and stop them in their tracks.
Risk #5: The problem of employee errors
Even with protections against threats coming from the outside, it cannot be overlooked that employees are human and therefore can make mistakes that would open the confidential data they access to attack. From weak passwords to opening spam emails, poor employee protection and behavior can be one of the biggest threats to business security.
How to protect yourself:
One of the best strategies to protect yourself from vulnerabilities through your employees lies in the passwords they select. Policies and settings that require employees to not only select strong passwords but then update them regularly can immediately help to reduce your cybersecurity risk.
Back this strategy up with excellent employee training. Teaching them to recognize scam attempts and phishing emails can all further reduce the chances of an employee making a mistake that endangers the business data.
Finally, monitoring software that helps to track potential threats can help to provide an additional level of security that will let you know if you have an attacker make it through your security protocols.
Putting All of These Cybersecurity Precautions to Work for You
Staying on top of your cybersecurity precautions for your unified communications system is a challenge. You have many competing priorities as you work to grow your business and seize expansion opportunities.
If you want to see what unified communications can do for you, you need to work with an experienced advisor that you can trust to put all of these security protocols in place to protect your business. Partnering with us at Gregg Communications is your path forward. Reach out to us today to learn more about how we can help you take advantage of the power of unified communications while remaining secure.