VoIP-Specific Attack Risks

One of the most attractive aspects of IP telephony is the ease with which we can communicate with people anywhere in the world at dramatically reduced costs (even zero cost in many cases). . The same technologies that afford us these benefits also can be employed for far less savory purposes. These include identity theft, compromising carrier networks for personal gain, intentional disruptions that threaten the viability of businesses, and industrial or state-sponsored espionage.

The typical enterprise or communications carrier executive has no concept of the risks associated with VoIP services, nor how to address them — other than what they are told by their IT teams. In most cases, executive fears are based on general media coverage that may be questionable in terms of reality and ignore more serious problems. IP telephony is still new with very complex issues.

Voice over IP (VoIP) traffic grew at a 42 percent annual growth rate last year to 45 billion minutes of calls handled by carriers, according to Telegeography (January 2007). The same report also indicated that the rate of growth for wholesale traffic carried by VoIP is double the pace for total voice revenues.

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