INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Enterprise Security
New Aeriandi survey
reveals voice is the
silent cybersecurity threat
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A
new study from voice security company, Aeriandi, has
highlighted UK organisations’ contradictory attitudes
towards the voice channel, increasing the chances of their
customers’, employees’ and partners’ data being exposed to
unauthorised parties – and as a result, falling foul of the new General
Data Protection Regulation. importance of voice and the voice channel, two thirds – 69% –
of those questioned responded that it is not a top priority for IT
security. This view was reflected in the security posture of their own
companies, with almost half – 47% – stating that voice security
was either not a priority, or a lower priority than other threats
including malware, phishing and trojans.
The study was carried out at the recent IFSEC show in London,
Europe’s leading security event. One hundred visitors were
asked a series of questions to understand their attitudes to voice
technology plus their company’s use of the voice channel to
communicate with customers. The contradiction in attitudes was highlighted by the fact that nearly
three quarters of those surveyed – 72% – believe that advances in
voice technology pose a significant threat to enterprise security and
40% think that more resources should be allocated to protecting the
voice channel within their company.
An overwhelming number of respondents – 70% – believe that
securing the voice channel is an important part of the IT security mix,
with 68% stating that it should fall under the scope of IT security. Matt Bryars, Co-founder and CEO of Aeriandi, said: “We live in an
age where the topic of data security is barely out of the news.
Many organisations live and die by their ability to keep our data
safe, which is why billions of pounds a year are spent on doing
just that. However, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link and
for many organisations, the voice channel is an often-overlooked
vulnerability that ends up being its downfall. With estimates that
between 30 to 50% of all fraud incidents are initiated with a phone
call, organisations must give the voice channel equal priority to other
cyberattack vectors.” n
However, when questioned about who within their company was
responsible for voice, only around one third – 37% – stated that
it fell under the remit of their IT security team. The remaining
64% of respondents said that responsibility lay with the contact
centre, customer care, general IT (not security) or telco and
networking teams within their company. When it comes to the
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