Botnets and their masters can communicate with each other by calling into the same VoIP conference call and swapping data using touch tones, researchers demonstrated at Defcon. This gives the botmasters, whose top goals include remaining anonymous, the ability to issue orders from random payphones and disposable wireless handsets, said researchers Itzik Kotler and Iftach Ian Amit of security and risk assessment firm Security Art. Using phones and the public phone networks eliminates one of […]
VoIP
53 posts
Businesses can finally replace their old phone systems and get a far more flexible phone solution for a fraction of the cost. But it’s not just replacing one phone system for another. With Hosted voice, you get the benefits of a fully managed phone system, which means you’ll need fewer resident experts to handle things. What’s more, Hosted voice expands communications and productivity by providing a range of advanced features and functionality. And it does […]
Channelling voice calls over IP networks has brought many advantages to enterprise communications, but it also creates some security risks. Though Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services are available for both consumer and business markets, it is from the latter that most enthusiasm for it has come; for this reason, it is also where most of VoIP’s security issues occur. While the commercial sector has, of course, invested heavily in protecting their data networks from […]
Unified communications is entering its own hype cycle, like that of cloud computing, virtualization, and color TV before it, as vendors tout their “me-too” solutions in a familiar history repeating itself pattern. UC brings together such capabilities as voice, videoconferencing, instant messaging, email, document sharing, and more into one user interface so employees of one company, their partners, and even customers can collaborate with each other across the corporate campus or across oceans. A recently […]
Rather than working with applications installed on servers at various office and site locations, the new cloud computing model promises to allow oil and gas companies to centralize increasing numbers of applications within the cloud, drawing on them as required and even paying for them as they are used. This new model is set to reduce costs drastically and improve the flexibility of moving to new software models. Today, CIOs want to benefit from these […]
Back in 1995, the first Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls were made between two PCs. At first, it was just a technological novelty but by 1998, VoIP had begun to establish itself as a means of providing low-cost long distance calls, carrying an estimated 1% of US phone traffic. Jump forward ten years to 2008 and VoIP has revolutionised the way that residential and business communications are delivered. According to Infonetics, around 30% of […]
Phreaking is a slang term coined to describe the activity of a subculture of people who study, experiment with, or explore telecommunication systems, such as equipment and systems connected to public telephone networks. As telephone networks have become computerised or based on VoIP, phreaking has become closely linked with computer hacking. But is VoIP hacking about to hurt businesses? Apr 11, Western Australia Police warned the state’s businesses to change passwords and cap international calls […]
Voice over Internet protocol essentially describes audio communication carried through Internet-based networks – basically, phone calls made over the Web, rather than through traditional phone lines. The term is also sometimes used to describe video-based communication carried over the Web from mobile devices, but is usually reserved for Web-based phone calls. For years, VoIP never really caught on in the consumer market, and even less in the business world. Because the service is dependent on […]
Securing Voice over IP (VoIP) doesn’t have to be a challenge for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). VoIP is basically a phone call over the Internet. It offers the same promises – and pitfalls – as the Internet. The promises are cheap and easy communication over a readily available and easy-to-use public network – the Internet. The pitfalls are the same security weaknesses of that network, which wasn’t originally designed for security – or phone […]
Businesses that implement VoIP (voice over IP) telephony systems on their local or wide area networks must ensure that they have effective protection against the growing incidence of VoIP hacking. That’s according to Graeme Victor, CEO of telecommunications solutions company Du Pont Telecom who says a small Johannesburg company was left with a telephone bill of more than R100 000 recently after criminals hacked into its VoIP telephony system over a weekend. VoIP is steadily […]