VoIP may make you more vulnerable

[Alexander Turcic]

The New Scientist runs an interesting story which basically warns us not to overlook (lack of) security in Voice-over IP (VoIP) technologies. While most users implementing VoIP these days are primarily concerned about voice quality, latency and interoperability, they are often unaware of the additional security baggage that voice brings along with it. New Scientist:

Security experts are warning that a rush to adopt the exciting new technology could be a mistake. VOIP makes phones vulnerable to viruses, denial of service (DOS) attacks, malicious re-routing of calls, toll fraud, ID spoofing and eavesdropping, according to reports published over the past year. "Security concerns are being left behind because of the speed at which VOIP is being adopted," says Dipak Ghosal, a computer security researcher at the University of California in Davis, US. "We are getting powerful new systems but hackers are getting powerful new tools."

Who would have thought that one day I might have to enable my firewall before making a phone call