This is not a new threat, and we have seen many cases of this in current-day networks.
For example, it is not uncommon for calling card PIN numbers to be captured
through network monitoring and sold on the black market. This is one reason why
internal security and access to the network should be highly protected.
Denial of Service
Network providers today are beginning to understand how serious this threat can be.
There have already been numerous documented cases of denial of service attacks made
on the legacy PSTN. New technologies always leave openings for exploitation and vulnerabilities
not yet discovered, and so denial of service should be considered heavily.
Most of the DoS attacks in today??™s networks have been focused on a specific target.
For example, there are several cases where attackers have used cell phones and hacked
conference bridges to call emergency services (such as 911 and 0911). By using a conference
bridge, they are able to add an additional call to the bridge, in these cases all
of those calls being to the same emergency service. They continue adding calls to the
bridge until all of the trunks to the emergency services are blocked.
Similar scenarios have been played out to other targets, using similar techniques.
Mass calling events have succeeded in putting switches and trunk groups into congestion,
blocking calls for more than an hour in many areas.
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