Research commissioned by Viatel has found that 43% of IT directors still believe that VoIP networks are inherently insecure. This figure rises to over half in the financial services and manufacturing sectors (56%). However, it is significant that despite this continued concern, companies aren't being put off adopting the technology with two-thirds saying they don't see the perceived security issues as a deterrent. Organizations clearly see the 50% cost savings and advanced functionality as significant enough reason to make the switch. In addition, companies are clearly comfortable with the reliability of VoIP, with two-thirds saying they believe today's IP networks are robust enough to carry voice, rising to an astounding 80% in the financial services sector.
DoS attacks and viruses are viewed by IT Directors as the most significant threats (53%). This is due to lost revenues, system downtime, lost productivity and unplanned maintenance costs. The second most significant threat (25%) is eavesdropping attacks, where those connected to the IP network hack into important calls. Not surprisingly, those in financial services (44%) see this as a greater threat than those in other sectors, possibly due to the highly sensitive information they are discussing.
"There has been a lot of discussion recently about VoIP security. Yet in reality, when you cut through all the hype, securing voice traffic really isn't any different from securing data traffic - it's all about ensuring your IP network is secure. However, there are some key security measures that companies should follow to put their minds at rest such as encrypting voice traffic, running it over a VPN, making sure firewalls are properly configured and choosing a provider where you don't have to completely overhaul your firewall configuration," commented Roberto Bonanzinga, senior vice president, business development and marketing, Viatel. "Also an option worth bearing in mind for businesses wanting to minimize the headache of security is to opt for a fully-converged provider of IP services, both voice and data, so that a single vendor is in charge of designing the security policy of the company."
The research also showed that organizations viewed the use of VoIP systems by hackers for free calls and spam over Internet telephony (spit) as the least significant threats. Considering the low cost and in many cases flat rates of VoIP calls this might explain why the former is not a big concern for companies. Despite spam being considered as less of a threat than DoS attacks and viruses, 14% of companies considered it as their most significant threat.
"Essentially there has been a lot of miscommunication in the industry which has created mistrust in the technology. With carriers keen to protect legacy voice revenues, misconceptions about VoIP as an insecure early adopter technology have not been stamped out," commented Roberto. "In addition to this is the lack of awareness and education on the differences between business VoIP services and Internet-based consumer services such as Skype. Internet-based services are insecure for two reasons. They aren't on a private network but on the open Internet, which means that intra-company calls are more open to hackers, and this also means they can't provide quality of service guarantees. Also, peer-to-peer clients are often insecure in their nature because they do not allow the IT administrator full control at the desktop level."
For more visit www.viatel.com.
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