LeeMah Datacom Security Corp
Author: iDH Staff
There are many ways to break into your phone system. But one small company, LeeMah Datacom Security Corp. in Hayward, Calif., claims it is the only vendor to offer a security solution to block hackers from all of them. Hackers, or phone "phreaks," typically break in through voice-mail systems, maintenance ports that let engineers work on the PBX from a remote location, and remote access features that allow travelling executives to place outgoing calls.
The majority of solutions protect against hackers breaking into maintenance ports, but those kind of break-ins account for only 10% of all hacking, according to LeeMah president John Tuomy.
Leemah's answer is TraqNet, a system that provides traveling executives with a credit card-sized Personal Authentication Device that generates a new password every time someone accesses the phone system. Users then have to enter a company-issued password to access a second dial tone to place outgoing calls, to access voice mail, or to reach a computer's maintenance port. TraqNet starts at $950 per port; the cards are $35 each; and a modem security device is $150.
"The constantly changing code makes it extremely difficult to enter the system," says John Haugh, a Portland, Ore.-based toll fraud analyst. LeeMah learned the method from its mainframe security systems, which it has been selling for eight years.
The major PBX vendors are taking notice. Last month, Rolm Co. agreed to resell TraqNet. And AT&T has tested the product for interoperability with its systems, sources say.
Says Dennis Hampshire, an engineer with Minnesota Power in Duluth, "It's cheap, secure insurance."
