Cost of VoIP

There’s no doubt that VoIP offers a myriad of benefits, including decreased expenses and increased productivity, but at what cost? According to Columbia researchers, it is a very high one and it is not monetary. The security is one of the biggest downsides of internet phone services. At a recent Amphion Forum, a conference on the security of connected devices, Ang Cui, a fifth-year grad student from the Columbia University Intrusion Detection Systems Lab and his colleague, Computer Science Professor Salvatore Stolfo, demonstrated how easily an IP phone could be compromised. Using a popular Cisco VoIP phone, Cui quickly attached a small external device which allows the transfer of binary malicious code to the phone. The attack enables remote and undetected access to the phone’s microphone, which allows the hacker to activate the microphone without it being noticed and to eavesdrop on conversations in the surrounding environment, even when there is no phone call in progress. The compromised phone can also be used to attack other devices on the network, such as computers, phones and printers. This is the wake up call that demands attention and improvements in security.