Friday, May 2, 2008

The Essential Guide to VoIP Privacy

What you need to know about protecting the privacy and confidentiality of IP phone calls.

People generally assume that their private phone calls are just that: private. VoIP users, however, shouldn't take privacy for granted. (neither group should)

The problem with most VoIP calls is that they travel over the Internet, a very public network. This means that calls are vulnerable to snooping at various points throughout their journey. And even private-network VoIP calls can be tapped if access can be gained to the physical wiring.

As a result, business competitors, employees, criminal gangs, tech hobbyists and just plain snoops can all listen in to a business's outgoing and incoming VoIP calls. All that's needed is a packet-sniffing program, easily downloaded from the Internet, and perhaps a tiny piece of hardware to tap into a physical wire undetectably.

But the news isn't all bad. Methods and systems are available to safeguard VoIP traffic... (more)