Robocall and TDoS prevention for healthcare organizations

Your hospital or healthcare facility is at risk. Bad actors can disrupt communications, crippling the delivery of critical services. You need to protect your organization.

Threats

Why would bad actors attack a hospital or healthcare facility? Here are a few reasons:

• Prank by hackers—just to see if they can do it
  • In 2016, an 18-year-old in Arizona launched a distributed TDoS (Telephony Denial of Service) attack that took down 911 service in 12 states
• Divert attention while hacking another system
• Prevent calls to financial institutions while making fraudulent charges or transactions
• Disable 911 emergency service during a terrorist attack
• Robocall auto dialer hits a block of numbers in your facility
  • Perpetrator wasn’t trying to take down your system
  • When their script hits your block of numbers, all your phones start ringing, tying up the lines and staff while distracting attention from critical services

Detection

Best practices in robocall and TDoS prevention include several detection methods:

1. Use the Trusted IP List feature in your SBC so it ignores SIP messages from untrusted sources
2. Check the calling number for warning signs:
   • On-net calls from external sources (e.g., neighbor spoofing)
   • Invalid
   • Do-not-originate
   • High-risk
   • Poor reputation
3. Use real-time traffic analysis to detect unusual call patterns
4. Verify the caller ID with STIR/SHAKEN

Mitigation

Once an inbound call is identified as a potential robocall or TDoS attack, you have the following options to mitigate the threat:

1. Report only, with alerts
2. Block the call
3. Send the call to voicemail
4. Divert the call to a CAPTCHA gateway, which prompts the caller to enter random two digits—humans can do that, but auto dialers cannot and are blocked
5. Modify the caller display name (CNAM), e.g., <SPAM>, so the called staff member knows when a suspicious call rings

For more information, see our robocall prevention and TDoS prevention pages.

Solution benefits

• Ensure business continuity in critical telecommunications
• Enhance corporate resiliency to withstand attacks on communications infrastructure
• Improve staff efficiency by removing distractions
• Protect personal information from fraudsters

Our ClearIP and NexOSS software products provide all these capabilities and benefits. Contact us today to learn how TransNexus software can prevent robocalls and TDoS attacks to enable your staff to continue to deliver excellent service.