NEC Elite voicemail help

cp7000@hotmail.com (Charles) wrote in message
> I've been helping a customer with an NEC Electra, and the NEC Elite
> voicemail.
>
> Over the weekend, it seems a couple of people got locked out of their
> vm boxes, so I stopped by and tried to log in by pc but it was also
> locked out and asked for a password that was not needed last week.
>  

For those who might be interested, we found the problem came from the
"notorious" Phillipine hackers.  I'm familiar with them in Panasonic
systems but this was the first time I came across an NEC system that
was hacked.  NEC was able to retrieve the password and we got
everything back to normal. We made sure the system is secured now
though.

Charles

Please elaborate. What's the story on these "Phillipine hackers?"

jakesnake





> cp7000@hotmail.com (Charles) wrote in message
> > I've been helping a customer with an NEC Electra, and the NEC Elite
> > voicemail.
> >
> > Over the weekend, it seems a couple of people got locked out of their
> > vm boxes, so I stopped by and tried to log in by pc but it was also
> > locked out and asked for a password that was not needed last week.
>
> For those who might be interested, we found the problem came from the
> "notorious" Phillipine hackers.  I'm familiar with them in Panasonic
> systems but this was the first time I came across an NEC system that
> was hacked.  NEC was able to retrieve the password and we got
> everything back to normal. We made sure the system is secured now
> though.
> Charles

> Please elaborate. What's the story on these "Phillipine hackers?"
>
> jakesnake
>
>

Here's a basic summary-
Because of the way international calling charges work, some countries
can assign numbers that make extra profit for the owner of the number
(sort of like a 900 number in the US).

These hackers (mainly from the Philippines) call in to voicemail
systems in the US and try to program mailboxes so they will use "pager
notification" or "cellphone notification" to force the system to dial
out to their numbers in the Philippines (the numbers just have an
automatic answering system that is designed to keep the calling system
on the line as long as possible. They make a small profit from each
call.

They often call on nights before a weekend, hoping that their hacks
won't be discovered until Monday, but sometimes they keep going for
quite a while.

Best protection methods: Good PASSWORDS on everything; block vm ports
from dialing overseas; block outdialing if it is not needed.

Charles
cp at cp77 dot com