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SecureLogix is currently offering no-cost downloads of our award-winning TeleSweep Secure® modem-vulnerability scanner. This free modem scanning software can be used to dial a batch of corporate phone numbers and report on the number of modems connected to these corporate lines. Modem connections represent a major, back-door security threat to the security of your LAN. Modem connections can be used by outside intruders (hackers) to gain unmonitored and unauthorized access into your corporate data network.
HOWEVER, it is important to remember that modem vulnerability scanners are not a solution to the modem threat, and are of limited value as a diagnostic tool. Only Voice Firewall solutions like the ETM® System from SecureLogix, can identify all modems inside your perimeter, block inbound war dialing attacks, and prevent the use of unauthorized modems on your corporate phone lines.
Why does SecureLogix provide a modem scanner?
Because we have an opportunity to provide you with a no-cost tool to begin understanding some of the many phone line security threats to your operations. And we stand ready to assist you when you are ready to fully identify and solve the larger number of telephony security issues you and your organization face today and throughout migration to VoIP.
Scanners Have Limited Value
A modem scanner (or war dialer) is a software program that systematically dials hundreds or thousands of phone numbers searching for answering modems. Before the development of next-generation voice firewall technologies, periodic modem scanning was the only method available to identify modem vulnerabilities inside an enterprise. Although these scanners retain some usefulness in identifying general modem security issues, their value is quite limited.
Scanners only identify a small subset of the total number of modems inside an enterprise, and their static, “snapshot-in-time” findings are only relevant for a very brief period. Additionally, any attempt to enforce a no-modem policy through scanning is dependent upon desk-to-desk, physical inspection and removal of identified modems. And employees can easily install new unauthorized modems mere moments after search and removal. Scanners, unlike voice firewalls, provide no means to continuously monitor and block unauthorized modem connections in real time.
Comparative studies performed by SecureLogix on customer networks have revealed that real-time phone line monitoring by a voice firewall identifies 5-to-10 times the number of modems found by scanners or war dialers. For example, during a recent service engagement with a prominent financial institution, SecureLogix scanned a small group of voice T1s for modems, while the ETM System voice firewall simultaneously monitored the same lines for modem traffic. Scanning detected 20 modems, while the real-time firewall identified 117 modems. The disparity is due largely to the fact that modem scanners only detect modems that are connected and set to auto-answer, but are not in use for dial-up connectivity at the time of the scan. It is dangerously ironic that scanners cannot identify an organization’s greatest modem risk – those modems with live, unmonitored Internet connections conducting active sessions during the scan. These live modem connections are invisible to scanners, but not to voice firewalls that can detect all modems as soon as they become active on the network. Further, voice firewalls can log and block all modem activity in real time, and eliminate the threat of in-bound war dialing. Voice firewalls such as the SecureLogix ETM System also identify and block other phone-based threats like toll fraud and emerging VoIP attacks.
Modems Remain a Serious Security Concern
Authorized and unauthorized modem connections represent a longstanding and serious threat to corporate data network security. Employees often connect modems to their corporate workstations and dial out to their private Internet Service Provider (ISP) accounts over their desktop phone lines. They seek these unmonitored Internet connections in order to circumvent the logging and filtering performed by the corporate data firewall. Traditional data network security technologies do not interface with telephone circuits, and cannot monitor traditional phone network traffic. Once dial-up connections are established, employees can download viruses and other restricted content. In addition, hackers can war dial to locate these modem connections inside the network perimeter and utilize them to gain unmonitored back-door access into the entire corporate data network.
Complete the Modem Scanner Registration.
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