Recently we have seen a few instances where systems were hacked and used to make overseas calls.
Traditionally we have been leaving security to the owner of the dialer, not counting that we follow and implement the security updates from Asterisk/Digium and other Linux applications, very closely. (Asterisk is the built-in phone system, or PBX.)
The dialer includes a firewall which is not activated by default as people then end up having issues connecting until they figure out how their network is set up.
Running (as root)
yum clear all;yum update
will give you the latest version which may very well include security updates, which could resolve the above remote access issue. If you have had periods of making a lot of calls in a short period of time, a database update could potentially take many hours. (The longest update we have seen started on Friday at 10pm and completed at 8:30am Monday morning.) You can read here on how to identify if the update will bring in changes to the SQL
http://callcentersg.com/updates.php.
Even though most updates goes very quickly, you should be aware of the potential of a prolonged down time. You can always have us estimate the length of your update.
To make it easier to lock down the system we are going to release a new function which will basically allow you to implement levels of network security. Note that securing a device, such as the dialer, is entirely the responsibility of the owner of the system. In no way can we guarantee any security, but we strive to assist towards improved security.
The modes will be:
lockdown – no access of any kind in or out
standard – only outbound traffic allowed
support – only outbound except inbound from us
insecure – open access for all
There may be additional custom changes that needs to be done, such as allowing certain carriers to communicate with your system. If you have agents that are external to your network that will require customization. (These should be done inside one hour of support.)
The idea is to give the majority an easy way to a higher level of security. Security is a trade off, a balancing act someplace between total security, where nothing works, and no security, where anything can be done by anyone.
With organized crime being very active financing online criminals this is no time to be lax with security.