Adoption of voice over IP (VoIP) telephony could present companies with sophisticated security threats, including caller ID spoofing, denial of service (DoS) attacks and voicemail spam, said the Information Security Forum (ISF).
The ISF, an association of 270 leading businesses, also said many of its members are concerned that organised criminals will try to sabotage firms by bringing down phone systems through DoS attacks and by spreading viruses.
“There are all the same risks that we are meeting already with data networks, such as viruses and worms,” said ISF consultant Nick Frost. “But then there are new scams such as caller ID spoofing and spam over internet telephony.”
The report warns that spam over internet telephony is one of the most dangerous threats resulting from the increased use of VoIP.
“In the past, spam via email was the preferred route because it was easy and free, whereas sales calls over the phone cost money and were traceable,” said Frost. “But now we have internet telephony this is cheaper for spammers.”
Internet telephony spam could also lead to reduced productivity, because staff would spend more time deleting unwanted calls. In extreme circumstances it could overload systems and cause downtime.
“What is a great idea with great functionality could become a burden,” said Frost.
Other risks from VoIP include the interception of sensitive telephone calls, redirection of calls and packet injections, where words are inserted into the data stream mid-conversation, said the ISF.
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