Lucent Technologies MERLIN LEGEND Release 5.0 Maintenance And Troubleshooting Manual page 297

MERLIN LEGEND Communications System Release 5.0
Maintenance and Troubleshooting 555-650-140
Customer Support Information
Toll Fraud Prevention
NOTE:
In most cases these will be loop-start lines/trunks without reliable
disconnect. The local telephone company will need to be involved
to change the facilities used for RCF to ground start lines/trunks.
Usually a charge applies for this change. Also, hardware and
software changes may need to be made in the MERLIN LEGEND
system. The MERLIN MAIL Automated Attendant feature merely
accesses the RCF feature in the MERLIN LEGEND system.
Without these changes being made, this feature is highly
susceptible to toll fraud. These same preventive measures must be
taken if the RCF feature is active for MERLIN LEGEND system
extensions whether or not it is accessed by an Automated
Attendant menu.
Security Risks Associated with the Remote
Access Feature
Remote Access allows the MERLIN LEGEND Communications System owner to
access the system from a remote telephone and make an outgoing call or perform
system administration, using the network facilities (lines/trunks) connected to the
MERLIN LEGEND system. Hackers, scanning the public switched network by
randomly dialing numbers with war dialers (a device that randomly dials telephone
numbers, including 800 numbers, until a modem or dial tone is obtained), can find
this feature, which will return a dial tone to them. They can even employ war dialers
to attempt to discover barrier codes.
Preventive Measures
Take the following preventive measures to limit the risk of unauthorized use of the
MERLIN LEGEND Communications System Remote Access feature by hackers:
The Remote Access feature can be abused by criminal toll fraud
hackers, if it is not properly administered. Therefore, this feature should
not be used unless there is a strong business need.
Issue 1
June 1997
Page A-21