US Govt report tackles VOIP security

A new U.S. government report issued by NIST (National Institute for Standards and Technology) weighs in on voice over IP (VoIP) security, offering valuable guidelines for solution providers and end customers.While noting the potential of the technology, such as lower costs and greater flexibility, the report states that those deploying VoIP must do more than just plug VoIP components into existing IP networks.

Despite the healthy caution, solution providers believe that VoIP systems can be made at least as secure as the technology they replace—as long as security figures prominently in solution deployment. "Because VoIP is shared infrastructure, you need to apply the same defense-in-depth strategy you would with any network infrastructure," says Chris Thatcher, national practice director, enterprise security at Dimension Data North America, Reston, Va. "Successful VoIP means placing the right controls around key assets throughout the infrastructure to mitigate risk."

For more information, see NIST Special Publication 800-58, Security Considerations for Voice Over IP Systems, available at http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/index.html.

If you belong to the Dimension Data Security community you can download our new global guidelines and templates for a Secure VOIP solution from the portal. The solution was developed in conjunction with our US, Africa and Australia practices.