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Xorcom was at ITEXPO (News - Alert) Miami last week talking about its new session border controller, which is embedded in the company’s PBX solutions. Eran Gal, CEO and co-founder of Xorcom (News - Alert), spoke on camera with TMCnet senior writer Peter Bernstein to explain why this is important.

As Gal noted, security has become a front-and-center issue in networking today. The hacks of major corporate, government, and retail networks including Sony, Target (News - Alert), and even the U.S. Central Command have been in the news in recent months. But did you know that business phone systems are also a major target of hackers?

“If you put an unprotected PBX (News - Alert) on the Internet it will probably be hacked in less than 30 minutes, and people will start routing calls through your PBX,” Gal explained.

That’s why Xorcom decided to integrate SBC functionality into its PBXs. Gal emphasized that Xorcom already offered security features on its PBXs.

“But we did see the need to create another layer,” he added. “This additional layer narrows the pipeline very significantly so the hacking attempts don’t even get to the PBX. We have an intrusion prevention mechanism, but it doesn’t even get there. We want to stop it further ahead; and we wanted to make it very simple.”

This Xorcom solution makes things simple by enabling users to whitelist the devices to which it will allow connection, he said, so those users in the process block the wide array of unauthorized devices that try to connect. That means users can set those protections “without even working hard,” he said.

Gal added that Xorcom works with a lot with carriers, and that the individuals who install the PBXs for those partners need simple solutions. So it’s important to provide them with a preconfigured system that’s simple to use and blocks all unauthorized connection attempts, said Gal, adding that’s exactly what Xorcom delivers.

In addition to the security features the new SBC functionality provider, Gal added the session border controller can also be leveraged for other uses such as to manage transcoding and to do manipulation in the SIP protocol to allow for better interoperability.