VoIP Gateways Article

Life is made up of yin and yang, the good and the bad. It’s all about balance, which means that even the best solutions have their downfalls. Take VoIP, for example. We spend a lot of time discussing the many benefits of VoIP—it provides unparalleled cost savings, promotes the remote workforce and empowers smaller businesses with better communications to help them keep up with major industry players. Whether in a big or small company, in a home or in an office, VoIP, in its many forms, is a game changer.

One of its best forms is VoIP gateways. VoIP gateways act as a bridge between old telephony and new, allowing companies to revamp their communications without it costing an arm and a leg. VoIP gateways do all of the abovementioned benefits, from saving money to helping companies provide remote work options. For the most part, there’s nothing negative to say about VoIP gateways.

However, there is the small issue of security. With fraudsters becoming more intelligent and tricky by the day, it’s possible for anything to be hacked at any given point. Since VoIP gateways are a piece of a larger communications puzzle, fraudsters like to go after them in an attempt to steal valuable company or individual information.

Luckily, there are ways to secure VoIP gateways against potential security breaches. According to beroNet, there are certain steps all organization should take to ensure that their VoIP gateways are as secure as possible. Here is an overview of beroNet’s recommendations:

1. Secure password

Since beroNet VoIP gateways (along with many other brands’ solutions) come with default credentials that can easily be found online, it’s important to immediately change the password information after the VoIP gateway is made functional. This is a good rule to follow with all things; you should never keep any generic password in place.

2. Deactivate bfdetect

The beroNet blog states, “bfdetect enables you to find and manage the IP settings of beroNet VoIP Gateways on your network. It should be used once and then deactivated in order to prevent somebody from messing with it. To deactivate it, navigate to “network settings” under “preferences+” and click on the option “Disable bfdetect.”

3. Use https connection

beroNet writes, “HTTPS is an important part of VoIP security. In order to have an encrypted connection on your gateway, also from LAN, we advise you to use https. It is a self-signed certificate so you need to add it to the exceptions of your browser. HTTPS should be used whenever it is possible for more VoIP security. Amongst others, it prevents hackers from stealing your credentials when you log in.”

These are just a few of the precautions beroNet suggests to fully secure a VoIP gateway. The company also states the importance of putting the gateway behind a firewall and ACL configuration. You can find all the security insights from beroNet here.