Voice mail messages can compromise information security

Aug 1, 1998 12:00 PM, GEORGE PARTINGTON

           

Is voice mail a security risk? It may depend on who you ask. In May, Chiquita Brands International had a lesson about the vulnerability of voice mail as a source of corporate information. That's when The Cincinnati Enquirer published a series of hard-hitting articles about the company based on voice-mail messages. Although newspaper management initially said they believed the information was provided to the lead reporter by a high-ranking Chiquita executive, they later learned that the messages, which revealed proprietary business practices, were obtained without Chiquita's knowledge. The newspaper later published a retraction and a page-one apology. The experience provides a cautionary tale for large corporations, but security consultant Sanford Sherizen, president of Data Security Systems Inc. , a Natick, Mass.-based computer security consulting firm, doesn't think it will be viewed that way. The message most corporations will take away from the case is: the Cincinnati paper was wrong, and they paid a large settlement, says Sherizen. But he adds, "I think the lesson is how vulnerable that information is and how people want to get it." Voice mail, and its close relative, e-mail, may not be thought of as information assets that need to be protected. Instead, they are thought of as a convenient means of conversation, of exchanging information. But that information can be easily accessed, says Sherizen. Sherizen has even seen a pamphlet on how to break into voice mail. It is relatively simple, he says, because systems can be identified by the announcements they use. "If they can figure out the vendor, they already have some clue as to some of the vulnerabilities of the system," says Sherizen. Hackers have lists of passwords, some of which are even specific to types of industries. Once a hacker has entered a voice mail system, the person can overhear conversations, make copies of messages, delete messages, change outgoing messages, and, depending on the setup, use the voice mail system as a back door to get into the computer system, according to Sherizen. Even more alarming, industrial spies doing competitive business intelligence gathering have begun to look to voice mail (in addition to e-mail) as a source of information, says Sherizen. And any company anticipating a lawsuit can expect the lawyers for the prosecution to request backlogs of their e-mails. While e-mail and voice mail can be security risks, Sherizen says "there are so many things you have to do to protect information that the last attention will be on voice mail and e-mail." Often, no one is in charge of security for these electronic forms of information, says Sherizen.

What can be done? To improve the security of your voice mail system, consultant Sanford Sherizen recommends the following: - Ask security questions of the vendor of the system, who should have some knowledge of potential security problems; - get rid of default passwords that come with the system; and - quiz the telephone vendor who does the major work for the organization on how to increase security.

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