VoIP Dangers Take Center Stage

The Voice over IP Security Alliance (VoIPSA) took the first major step today to combat VoIP dangers --- and it's long overdue. VoIP security is IP telephony's Achilles Heel, and until now, no one has taken it seriously. What VoIPSA did may not sound earth-shattering: It released a taxonomy of VoIP threats, called the VoIP Security Threat Taxonomy. But until you can name something, agree on whether it's a threat, and do this systematically for entire categories of dangers, you'll never get a start on fighting those threats.

Voice spam, voice spoofing, denial of service...these are just some of the threats you'll be hearing about in the coming years. If they're not dealt with now, they could cripple the VoIP future.

VoIPSA organized threats into four main categories. Two -- denial of service and unlawful signal or traffic modification -- deal with the integrity of the network signal and infrastructure. The other two -- signal interception and bypass of refused consent -- are more VoIP-focused and deal specifically with privacy.

In the coming years, you'll be hearing a lot more about VoIP hijacking, VoIP spam, and similar threats. By taking the first step in confronting them, VoIPSA may ensure that they won't be quite as dangerous as they otherwise could be.