(TOWNSHIP OF PERTH EAST, ON) The Perth County Ontario Provincial Police (O.P.P.) is currently investigating the theft of telecommunication from a local company.
At the end of February, the company manager contacted police and reported that the company was the victim of $7,500.00 worth of theft of long distance calls.
Investigation revealed that between the middle of January and the middle of February 2013, the company’s Voice Over IP (VOIP) system (which allows telephone calls to be made over an IP network, such as the internet instead of an ordinary public switched telephone network) was used to place in excess of 1000 phone calls. Not until Bell Canada alerted the company of their excessive long distance phone volume did they realize that their system had been hacked.
The theft was perpetrated by someone calling into the company phone system and accessing private extensions. Once inside the system a Trojan was installed on the company server allowing the forwarding of calls.
The company’s passwords for their voice mail system were found to be very weak, (e.g. Ext 325 would have password 325) allowing easy access into their network. Once the culprits were in the system, they utilized a generic number for a legitimate provider of 1-800 numbers for telephone systems outside of Canada. Using this, they were able to disguise the caller’s identification, and the numbers called would be spoofed numbers, which do not show up as the actual numbers called.
In most cases, when a business telephone system is hacked, stolen data is used by the culprit or it is sold to other criminals who in turn may resell it. The stolen data is used to make expensive long distance calls, usually overseas. The calls usually continue until the victim or the telephone provider is alerted.
The Perth County OPP is continuing their investigation into this theft of telecommunication. They encourage companies to re-asses their communication security and to stay up to date on possible security threats and scams.
Anyone having information about this or similar thefts is requested to contact the Perth County OPP at 1-888-310-1122. Should you wish to remain anonymous, you may call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), and you may be eligible to receive a cash reward of up to $2,000.
