Comments for VoIP Spam?

VoIP Spam?

2005-02-07T20:26:34Z

Interesting Cnet article which talks about an alliance being formed by VoIP service providers called "VoIP Security Alliance" which aims to prevent VoIP spam, SPIT (spam over Internet telephony) or whatever you want to call it.
What's interesting is this quote, "With little evidence to suggest a problem, however, the 22 member companies of the VoIP Security Alliance run the risk of provoking the digital world's black hats."
Hate to break it to ya, but if black hats or spammers can make a buck via VoIP spam, then they're going to do it regardless of an organization/alliance being formed.
The almighty dollar and greed will drive VoIP spam. Still, I do agree that this may be a case of crying wolf before the wolf has actually left its cage. But everyone seems to be prognasticating VoIP spam will happen one day, so I suppose it's better to get the best minds in VoIP together and figure out what to do before it happens.
Now if only the SMTP designers better thought out the potential for email spam... Then life would have been good...
Alliance wants to beat spam to Net phones | CNET News.com

Comment from John Caruso on 2005-07-05

2005-07-05T22:51:01Z

Spam sucks. VoIP spam will suck more than anything that has ever sucked.

Comment from David M on 2006-03-02

2006-03-03T03:10:54Z

SPAM over VoIP is going to be a massive issue. I'm finishing up a diploma program in Network Engineering Technology, and after seeing just how much bandwidth VoIP needs, SPAM is going to be a huge issue. It's hard enough just getting local voice calls through a data network and maintaining QoS and all the priorities, etc. Keeping an MOS (Mean Opinion Score) of 4/5 can be very challenging, and may require very expensive equipment and very careful planning and implimentation. SPAM calls, broadcasting over all the VoIP phones could cost companies millions. It could potentially overload the network traffic and equipment, causing more downtime. Downtime is money. In cases of some companies (dealing with stock trade, for example) a single hour of downtime can cost over $5 MILLION.

Thats just the technical side of it. Imagine picking up your phone at the office and you hear a pre-recorded message about #### Enlargments? (Wouldn't let me post the word) Imagine your 7 year old daughter picking up the phone and hearing that? Yeah, I definately agree. VoIP spam will definately suck more than anything has ever sucked...

Comment from gerald on 2006-05-24

2006-05-24T15:12:57Z

smtp is a transport protocol, it has nothing to do with spam.