According to the US-based Communications Fraud Control Association, telecoms fraud caused nearly $30 billion in fraudulent charges last year alone. Of this amount, there was almost $4 billion in financial losses resulting from PBX hacking and toll fraud on enterprise communications networks.
In order to help enterprises reduce the risks of PBX hacking and exposure to toll fraud, the Germany-based technology vendor Oculeus this week launched a new telecoms protection service.
The company states that this new service, named Oculeus-Protect, provides real-time protection against false charges resulting from the unauthorized usage of enterprise telecommunication channels. The service is intended to stop fraudulent telecommunications traffic within milliseconds.
“There is a clear and definite need for our new telecoms fraud protection service,” said Oculeus CEO, Arnd Baranowski. “In many places, the burden of proving and even paying for the false charges resulting from telecoms fraud are on the enterprise and relying solely on the telco for protection is not sufficient.”
Oculeus is making this new service available from a number of regional Cloud environments managed by the company.
During the service activation process, an enterprise will need to register and configure its PBX systems so that the signaling flows of all calls are monitored by the service. Oculeus said that this is a quick and straightforward process that requires a few minutes.
The technology behind the service provides protection by monitoring an enterprise’s communications network for traffic anomalies and other patterns that are typical of telecoms fraud against a baseline profile of expected telecommunications activities. Any suspicious traffic, according to Baranowski, is immediately sent to a fraud detection engine and blocked instantly, if confirmed to be fraudulent.
“Today’s perpetuators of telecoms fraud are using advanced, fast moving technologies that significantly outpace the existing fraud protection practices of most telcos, leaving enterprises constantly exposed to the expensive consequences of telecoms fraud,” warned Baranowski.
Baranowski compared the Oculeus-Protect service to how an antivirus system works on a laptop, stating that it runs in the background with no noticeable impact on the speed or quality of the enterprise’s existing voice communications.
Pricing for the Oculeus-Protect service is based on a monthly fee according the number of PBX devices that are protected.
Yadawanka Pal
