Lucent Technologies 5 manual Educating Operators, Detecting Toll Fraud, Establishing a Policy

MERLIN LEGEND Communications System Release 5.0	Issue 1
System Manager’s Guide 555-650-118	June 1997

ACustomer Support Information

Other Security Hints	Page A-16
Educating Operators	1

Operators or attendants need to be especially aware of how to recognize and react to potential hacker activity. To defend against toll fraud, operators should follow the guidelines below:

■Establish procedures to counter social engineering. Social engineering is a con game that hackers frequently use to obtain information that may help them gain access to your communications system or voice messaging system.

■When callers ask for assistance in placing outside or long-distance calls, ask for a callback extension.

■Verify the source. Ask callers claiming to be maintenance or service

personnel for a callback number. Never transfer to *10 without this verification. Never transfer to extension 900.

■Remove the headset and/or handset when the console is not in use.

Detecting Toll Fraud 1

To detect toll fraud, users and operators should look for the following:

■Lost voice mail messages, mailbox lockout, or altered greetings

■Inability to log into voice mail

■Inability to get an outside line

■Foreign language callers

■Frequent hang-ups

■Touch-tone sounds

■Caller or employee complaints that the lines are busy

■Increases in internal requests for assistance in making outbound calls (particularly international calls or requests for dial tone)

■Outsiders trying to obtain sensitive information

■Callers claiming to be the “phone” company

■Sudden increase in wrong numbers

Establishing a Policy 1

As a safeguard against toll fraud, follow these guidelines for your MERLIN

LEGEND Communications System and voice messaging system:

■Change passwords frequently (at least quarterly). Changing passwords routinely on a specific date (such as the first of the month) helps users to remember to do so.

■Always use the longest-length password allowed.