Vocal IP chose SIP Analytics for faster fraud prevention

Fraud detection using call detail records (CDRs) was too slow. Vocal IP chose SIP Analytics.

The Challenge

“With CDR-based fraud detection, you know nothing about a fraud attack at the beginning. If you have to wait an extra 15 minutes or so, that becomes a very expensive liability. It’s way too late.” Eugene Gutman, Vocal IP

Vocal IP began using NexOSS-FC with SIP Analytics to stop fraud attacks much faster.

Result

With SIP Analytics, Vocal IP’s risk exposure to fraudulent calls has dropped about 99% from what they were experiencing before they had any fraud management system and much lower than they were experiencing even with their CDR-based system.

Customer success story

“We’ve been running SIP Analytics for last year. Have we seen fraud attacks? Yes. Did SIP Analytics stop them? Absolutely. Stopped it automatically.” Eugene Gutman, Vocal IP

Vocal IP has been in business since 2006. They provide telecom, data and security services to businesses across the country. The founders are people with technical expertise in network engineering.

Vocal IP’s business philosophy is to analyze a customer’s requirements and understand what they need. Vocal IP will then configure a package that fits the customer needs, rather than pushing an off-the-shelf product.

Vocal IP has built a large multi-location telecom and data network using the latest technologies, such as dynamic VPN and SD-WAN with redundant fail over capabilities to ensure reliable service. In keeping with this approach, Vocal IP uses BroadSoft carrier-grade telecom network solutions for their advanced features and proven reliability.

First experiences with telecom fraud attacks

In the early days of the Vocal IP business, an unusually large bill came in for one customer whose PBX had been hacked by a fraudster. For example, a typical scenario might involve a user account on a customer’s PBX with a simple voicemail password that a fraudster could identify using a brute-force attack.

Vocal IP helped the customer fix the security breach in the PBX. Although the customer was legally required to pay the bill, they couldn’t. Both the customer and Vocal IP suffered significant financial losses from the telecom fraud attack.

CDR-based fraud detection

Vocal IP got their first telecom fraud management system from TransNexus. The system monitored call detail records (CDRs). It was a solid product, and it detected and prevented fraud. It reduced fraud losses for Vocal IP and their customers, but it didn’t eliminate fraud attacks completely.

The reason was due to the timing required for CDR-based fraud prevention. CDRs are created after calls are completed. This delays fraud detection, because the attack can be under way for quite some time before the first fraudulent calls are completed. Only then are the corresponding CDRs created and made available to the fraud detection system. This is way too late. A delay of even 15 minutes or so becomes a very expensive liability.

The Latest State-of-the-Art Solution: SIP Analytics

The team at Vocal IP learned about SIP Analytics, from TransNexus. It’s a new technique for fraud detection and prevention that analyzes SIP records used to set up a call. SIP Analytics can stop attacks just as they are starting, rather than waiting for call completion.