Broadband VOIP Security Woes

#73 This is a very interesting executive insight published by Bearing Point, into the security problems that are starting to plague broadband VOIP. My company installs hundreds of large corporate VOIP networks yearly on a global basis, and we have a specific proven methodology for securing these, but it would seem that the massive uptake in public broadband VOIP has resulted in the majority of security issues being expereinced at broadband as opposed to corporate VOIP level. About 7.5 million out of 200 million US homes and offices have traded in their traditional phone lines for VoIP. But research firm Gartner predicts there could be as many as 25 million VoIP-connected homes by 2008.

Low-cost voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone services now capturing the general public's imagination are indeed being targeted by online attackers, who have been known to eavesdrop on calls, deny customers access to their VoIP service and cause "clipping," or degraded service quality, on some accounts.VoIP's security problems only heighten concerns simmering since January, when a Harris Interactive poll found that 60 percent of all adults in the United States who are aware of Internet telephony but not using it believe it could be subject to security and privacy issues.

It is likely that the broadband VOIP movement is likely to define standards for Secure VOIP that will eventually be adopted at an enterprise level.