The Trouble With VoIP
Leon Erlanger, in Network World Canada magazine (links below), writes in two detailed articles about the vulnerabilities of VoIP (Voice Over IP), and some steps being made towards security and protecting VoIP communications.
At the heart of the problem is that VoIP is based on the Internet Protocol (IP), and thus is currently no more secure than email. As more people use VoIP, and as new tools allow, security attacks will like become more common as unsavoury types will find it easier to annoy people in a new medium.
For example, if it was as simple as pressing a button to send a large list of recipients a single audio file consisting of a telemarketing type of message, wouldn't phishers and spammers and the clueless do so? Of course they would. Erlanger calls this activity SPIT: spam over Internet telephony.
The balancing act is in adding security layers while trying to keep lag time down. If you've ever spoken to someone overseas a decade or more ago, you know what it's like waiting for someone to respond, wondering if they've got the message.
If you've watched any of the news coverage of the Iraq war on TV, you've also seen journalists nod their head while actually waiting for the anchorperson's voice to reach them. VoIP runs the risk of these time lags, when security and compression layers are added onto the processing of audio files. No doubt these problems will be worked out over time.
Links/sources: Network World Canada (Mar 3/06 issue) - Leon Erlanger - VoIP Vulnerabilities, Doing VoIP the Right Way (free registration may be required)
Technorati Tags: computingnews, computing news, voip, internet telephony, communications, security
At the heart of the problem is that VoIP is based on the Internet Protocol (IP), and thus is currently no more secure than email. As more people use VoIP, and as new tools allow, security attacks will like become more common as unsavoury types will find it easier to annoy people in a new medium.
For example, if it was as simple as pressing a button to send a large list of recipients a single audio file consisting of a telemarketing type of message, wouldn't phishers and spammers and the clueless do so? Of course they would. Erlanger calls this activity SPIT: spam over Internet telephony.
The balancing act is in adding security layers while trying to keep lag time down. If you've ever spoken to someone overseas a decade or more ago, you know what it's like waiting for someone to respond, wondering if they've got the message.
If you've watched any of the news coverage of the Iraq war on TV, you've also seen journalists nod their head while actually waiting for the anchorperson's voice to reach them. VoIP runs the risk of these time lags, when security and compression layers are added onto the processing of audio files. No doubt these problems will be worked out over time.
Links/sources: Network World Canada (Mar 3/06 issue) - Leon Erlanger - VoIP Vulnerabilities, Doing VoIP the Right Way (free registration may be required)
Technorati Tags: computingnews, computing news, voip, internet telephony, communications, security
