VOIP is a ticking time bomb

After a false start, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is finally taking off: according to recent research, the global market for VoIP will reach $82 billion this year and $196.5 billion by 2007*, and much of this growth is driven by the enterprise, with the IT sector the most enthusiastic adopter. However, many businesses are failing to realise how the technology will revolutionise security in the data centre, according to secure application access specialists, PortWise. The key problem is that convergence represents a step change in the number of points in the network for unauthorised access and denial of service. In order to address this issue, it is more critical than ever for companies to ensure they have a comprehensive security policy that addresses securing physical connection, audit trails and policy based access decisions.

“The key security issue with introducing VoIP services onto a corporate enterprise is that it introduces the need for Internet security into the heart of the data centre, and there simply is not enough expertise in most data centres to cope with it,” said Jonathan Martin, CMO, PortWise. “There is a huge potential for convergence to make the unified network more vulnerable to internal and external attack, and the issue goes far beyond picking up the phone and finding no dial tone.”

Earlier this year, an industry body, the Voice over IP Security Alliance, was formed to address this issue. Although it is yet to define the threats to IP telephony, it acknowledges that hackers are already developing methods to take advantage of this burgeoning communication system. Such threats could include filling a phone’s voicemail with unsolicited advertisements, or programming all the telephones in an office to simultaneously call the same number, a pay-by-the-minute bogus number, for example.

In order to address the exponential increase in the number of points for unauthorised access on a network that VoIP represents, it is critical for companies to adopt a holistic approach to secure internal and external access to applications. The three key issues are: securing the physical connection; audit trails; and the ability to make policy based access decisions.

*Statistics provided by Insight Research

www.portwise.com

•Date: 26th July 2005 • Region: UK/World • Type: Article •Topic: Telecoms continuity
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