Top Telecom and Cybersecurity “Must-Haves”

Cybersecurity and Telecommunications should be managed together because secure technology has limited value if it's unreliable—and even when reliable, communications can still place a company at risk if they are not adequately protected.

Here are ten "must-have" recommendations for any organization, large and small:

Conduct a Complete Technology and Risk Assessment. Inventory all networks, devices, applications, telecommunications services, cloud platforms, data, and vendors. Identify outdated equipment, unsupported software, redundant services, and critical points of failure.

Require Multifactor Authentication. Implement multifactor authentication for email, cloud applications, remote access, administrative accounts, voice portals, and telecommunications management systems. This greatly reduces the danger posed by stolen passwords.

Build Network and Carrier Redundancy. Avoid relying on one internet connection, telecommunications carrier, network route, or data center. Secondary circuits, diverse carriers, wireless failover, and automatic SD-WAN switching can keep operations running during outages.

Adopt a Zero Trust Security Model. Users and devices should receive only the access required to perform their responsibilities. Verify every access request and segment networks, so a compromised computer, telephone system, or account cannot expose the entire organization.

Modernize Legacy Telecommunications Infrastructure. Replace aging phone systems, unsupported network equipment, and vulnerable POTS lines. Evaluate secure cloud voice, UCaaS, SIP trunking, and managed connectivity while protecting critical services such as alarms, elevators, fax machines, and emergency phones.

Maintain Tested Backups and Recovery Plans. Keep encrypted, isolated, and preferably immutable backups of essential data and configurations. Regularly test restoration procedures for servers, cloud systems, firewalls, routers, telephone systems, and contact-center platforms.

Monitor Networks and Communications Continuously. Use centralized logging, endpoint detection, threat monitoring, and telecommunications performance tools. Early warnings involving unusual logins, call-routing changes, bandwidth spikes, or unauthorized configuration activity can prevent larger incidents.

Strengthen Employee Training. Teach employees to recognize phishing, smishing, voice phishing, fraudulent websites, social engineering, and business email compromise. Training should include procedures for independently verifying payment requests, password resets, and changes to telephone or carrier accounts.

Evaluate Providers and Contracts Carefully. Review the security controls, financial stability, escalation procedures, service-level agreements, disaster-recovery capabilities, and customer support of every cybersecurity and telecommunications provider. Establish clear accountability before signing an agreement rather than waiting for problems to appear after implementation.

Create and Test an Incident-Response Plan. Define who must be contacted during a cyberattack, carrier outage, ransomware incident, data breach, or telephone-system failure. Conduct tabletop exercises and maintain alternative communication methods so executives, employees, customers, vendors, insurers, and authorities can be reached when primary systems are unavailable.

These recommendations align with the risk-management principles of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, along with guidance from CISA and the FCC’s network-reliability resources.

Contact the team at GCG and let us help your organization be prepared in an ever-changing digital landscape.