Fighting Back Against Threats To Voice Over IP

As voice-over-IP services grow in popularity, the potential for viruses, worms, and other security threats aimed at the technology also will grow. A group of security and networking vendors, research universities, and a government agency this week will form the VoIP Security Alliance to uncover and fight those security risks.

"VoIP inherits the traditional cyberthreats that data networks face today, and it faces additional threats because of the nature of voice communications," says VoIP Security Alliance chairman David Endler, who is the director of digital vaccine at TippingPoint Technologies Inc., the security arm of networking vendor 3Com Corp. "We predict that in the next year or two we will see more VoIP-specific attacks."

The group intends to provide free testing tools and testing methodologies, list best VoIP security practices for service providers and businesses, and set up a Web site and mailing lists to keep members and other interested parties up to date on VoIP security developments.

Other charter members include Alcatel, Enterasys, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Southern Methodist University, and Symantec.