Lucent Technologies MERLIN LEGEND Release 6.1 Maintenance And Troubleshooting Manual page 345

MERLIN LEGEND Communications System Release 6.1
Maintenance and Troubleshooting 555-661-140
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
Communications System. The MERLIN MAIL and MERLIN
LEGEND Mail Automated Attendant feature merely accesses the
RCF feature in the MERLIN LEGEND Communications 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
Communications 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 private network facilities (lines/trunks)
connected to the MERLIN LEGEND Communications 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 programmed. Therefore, this feature should
not be used unless there is a strong business need.
Issue 1
August 1998
Page A-19