Enterprises today live and die by the sword of email. Love it or hate it, it has become the defacto standard for business communications. Gone are the days of the Gestetner, Teletypes, Interoffice Envelopes and Fax machines. Sorry, what’s that? Fax machines are still used you say?

But of course.

So this begs the question. How many folks out there monitor their usage? I have worked in many environments and the universal truth has been that the fax machines were a handy escape from the network. More often than not I was able to use the fax line to dial out thereby bypassing all of the network controls. How does that cliche go again? Something about a chain being only as strong as its weakest link.

Did someone hear a snapping noise?

A few weeks ago I was invited in to meet with a company here in Toronto. From time to time I do this as a sort of good will gesture. I think that more companies can grow if there is some sort or mentoring/sharing agreement set up. But, I digress. The company in question was unaware as to where their breach was coming from and they were baffled. There was no wireless network. They had firewalls with sound rule sets. But, there was nothing to prevent someone with a modem on their laptop from connecting to the internet via a fax line. Sure enough, after pulling the usage on the fax lines it became apparent that fax lines had indeed been the egress.

Be sure to review your fax line usage. You might be surprised at what you find.

Tags: Fax Machines, Perimeter Defense, Data Breach