Security VoIP and Otherwise

Peter : On Rad's Radar?
Peter
| Peter Radizeski of RAD-INFO, Inc. talking telecom, Cloud, VoIP, CLEC, and The Channel.

Security VoIP and Otherwise

There are certainly security risks with VoIP. (And we will get to that). But let us not forget that TDM voice is easy to hack too. A pair of alligator clips and people can dial from your line or listen in.

Wi-fi has been outed as unsafe especially with the launch of Firesheep.

Heck, how many folks change their passwords regularly? Have you ever changed your voicemail password? Is your laptop password protected? Do you have lojack for your laptop? How about your cell phone? Password protected? A wipe app?

See my point?  One more.

HIPAA worries people only for digital files. HIPAA requires security on all files - paper ones too! No one seems to mind that most files lie around a medical office all day unprotected. Or that the file cabinets aren't locked every night. But, oh, boy, do medical professions get their knickers in a bunch over digital security.

There are hackers whacking at websites and databases all the time. After the Wikileaks episode, we heard about VISA, MAstercard, AMazon and others being bombarded by DDoS attacks to take them down.

The DDoS attack is essentially a group of hackers controlling a bunch of bot computers to send requests and packets to a website or IP Address in large numbers to take it down. The bot computers are computers (like yours) that have been infected with malware or a trojan. Always on computers with always on broadband means always available bot net.

This takes us to last week when Tele-Pacific's VoIP service was down due to basically a DDoS attack or what some describe as Call Flooding. One report called it terrorism, which is just being melo-dramatic. The FBI is involved to help track the culprits.

This will happen. Unlike Call Fraud, which is motivated by financial gain, this kind of attack leaves me baffled by why a hacker would bother, unless they were a disgruntled customer. As more traffic moves to VoIP, providers will need to be monitoring more; have controls in place; and be ever evolving the security of the network. 



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