Three criminals were recently arrested for breaking into thousands of businesses’ phone systems. How’d they gain access? It was easy:

They just guessed the passwords.

U.S. officials brought charges against three Filipino residents who allegedly gained illegal access to roughly 2,500 private branch exchange (PBX) systems (computer-based phone networks used by businesses to assign telephone extensions). The crooks used that access to sell cheap international phone calls to customers around the globe.

Sounds like a complex operation, but it turns out the hacking part wasn’t all that difficult. Officials said most of the victimized companies kept the default password set on the system when it was purchased.

The lesson: Tech folks may know better, but there’s no guarantee everyone in your company understands the important of choosing difficult passwords and changing them regularly.

Tags: hacking, passwords, PBX