Security: SIP-Based Contact Centers

As SIP explodes beyond connecting VoIP calls to a plethora of modes of communication, the hyper-connected contact center must adopt security measures to provide a whole new level of protection.

SIP is rapidly expanding far beyond a being mechanism for simply connecting VoIP calls.  In fact, there is a veritable explosion of additional modes of SIP-enabled communications that users are adopting in an IP-based world. Not surprisingly, many of these additional modes include capabilities that are a part of the hyper-connected contact center.  Rather than the contact center being based on traditional telephony, the contact center is now a conglomeration of media supporting a wide range of activities.

Our recent report, "2015 Unified Communications, SIP, and SBC Plans and Priorities," demonstrated that the number of SIP based applications has mushroomed over the past couple of years.  Growth for areas that are related to the contact center include:

This hyper-connectivity presents a range of challenges, especially from a security perspective.  The most basic security threat is a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDOS) attack.  Since VoIP calls must involve a call setup, DDoS attacks for VoIP calls are easily mounted, just as they are for any other IP-based communications; a rogue process sends out a flood of connection requests, and, when the host system responds, the process never responds, wasting precious bandwidth and processing resources over the network.  And unlike the simplicity of TCP-SYN attacks, DDOS attacks have now evolved to include UDP flood attacks, GET flood attacks, and other variations.  Additionally, as the Internet of Things (IoT) evolves, there are many new devices that can initiate such attacks on a network.

As the trend to support these different applications grows within the contact center, so does the need for additional SIP trunks and the need to secure the applications that run over them.  

The need for contact center security solutions can be seen on several levels.  So far, we've only addressed availability of the infrastructure - making sure that communications (calls) can be established. From a systems perspective, the databases that provide information for the contact center personnel to be able to work effectively must be protected.  Virtually all web sites endure a constant barrage of SQL-injection attacks.  Further, contact center personnel are highly trained professionals, and their time must be protected so that they can work efficiently.

The security question is greatly exacerbated by the rapid change in network architecture for the contact center.  Several years ago, the "call center" was housed in a central location, often accommodating hundreds or even thousands of individual agents.  Relative to what we live with today, building a "digital moat" around this castle was rather straight-forward.

Those days are long gone.  The infrastructure of the contact center may span across several data centers, including both main and branch offices.  Additionally, the infrastructure may be comprised of a hybrid model of dedicated and virtual systems and as well as a mix of premises-based and cloud-based systems.  In addition to infrastructure changes, the distributed contact center, whereby agents may work from literally anywhere - including a home office - are becoming the norm rather than the exception.  All of these components bring with them their own set of security concerns.

But is there a light at the end of this tunnel?  Fortunately, the answer is "yes."

In our report, we explored on the integral link between SIP and the Session Border Controler (SBC), which supports a wide range of functions for SIP-based communications.  The respondents to the survey for the report naturally ranked "Security for SIP Sessions" as the most important job of a Session Border Controller (SBC).  However, other desired SBC features that are relevant to the contact center include:

The SBC has become an integral component for enabling IP-based communications across a network,  Regardless of the deployment model (appliance vs. virtualized, cloud-based vs. premises based, etc.), it's critical that  a contact center takes advantage of the value SBCs bring to their network when it comes to providing authentication, encryption, transcoding, and DDoS protection.

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