A recent GetVoIP article highlighted what I’ve long felt is an important issue for the contact center: security. As the article noted, contact centers are prime targets for security threats due to their high volume of interaction with unfamiliar voices.
The issue of contact center security is not just something for the contact center, either; helping businesses secure their contact center operations can be a competitive advantage for VoIP providers.
But first, some of the biggest security challenges that contact centers face: denial of service attacks, identity theft from poor security questions, do not call registry violations, and identify theft from misdialing.
One of the most pernicious is telephone denial of service attacks, which is where a cyber criminal overwhelms the VoIP service of the contact center and grinds its operations to a halt. The attacker then usually tries to extort money in exchange for stopping the attack.
VoIP providers have the opportunity to help contact centers with this issue, as it is possible for VoIP providers to have a robust infrastructure where they can redirect calls when a denial of service attack is underway. They also can block calls from a certain location, just like blocking traffic from specific IP addresses.
VoIP providers looking for a competitive advantage can market this focus on security as one of their selling points.
A second security threat where VoIP providers can help is ensuring that contact centers have consecutive numbers so there is no identity theft from misdialing. A VoIP provider can make sure that businesses are aware of this issue, and provider blocks of consecutive numbers so there is no chance of this security threat coming into play.
While the first threat can be prevented by tech, this second way that VoIP providers can help largely is one of information sharing and spreading awareness to customers.
Security is a big issue for the contact center, as sensitive information is routinely shared there. It is incumbent that both contact centers and VoIP providers work to ensure that this data stays safe.
Edited by Alisen Downey