Jaqueline Hallihan, owner of an investment consulting firm, just learned the hard way how destructive a disgruntled former employee can be.  He “got even” by wreaking havoc with the company’s voice mail system.   He erased client messages, transferred potentially damaging messages to other employees, and left the firm’s employees in doubt about what was legitimate voice mail and what was not.  Ms. Hallihan had to allow the abuse to continue for six months while the FBI conducted an investigation.

If you have made no effort to secure your voice mail, you may be exposing your company to loss of confidential information and sales leads, fraudulent long-distance charges, or even use of your system to set up an illegal business.

You can substantially decrease these risks simply by taking better advantage of security measures already built into your system.  In addition, try some of the following measures recommended by the Multi Messaging Educational Committee:

• Locate your system in a room with strictly controlled access
• Change system access passwords regularly (These passwords should be known by only two or three authorized personnel).
• Disallow or restrict calls made to long-distance numbers
• Monitor bad password disconnects and unusual after-hours activity
• Require employees to change passwords periodically, and require use of long (at least six-digit) passwords.
• Protect your password as you would a bank card PIN.

Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) know that understanding that the risks exist is the first step in eliminating them. Contact a PEO for information about a host of Risk Management measures that your company can implement as a means of protecting your business, your employees, and your profits.

Sources:

“Protecting Your Voice Mail System”  http://www.mmec.org/pg4.html.
“Hacked!:  The security hazards of voice mail.”  Entrepreneur.