Did you know that they can spam VOIP just like they spam e-mails? Whoever “they” may be, the threat may very well be quite real and has actually been given a name. “Spit” stands for spam attacks against internet telephony connections. Alright, I do not know who coined this term and whether I think it is clever or just plain silly. Still, that is beside the point – it might exist and might pose a problem in the future.

According to the Heise Online News, the Internet Engineering Task Force is going to be working on this issue over the next 6 to 12 months. Yet is there really a threat? According to Jon Petersen, “there was no evidence at the present time that a “spit” problem existed. In his opinion it was still, at best, theoretical. A representative of the NEC Lab in Heidelberg, on the other hand, said that work on possible solutions to “spit” had already been going on there for three years. At present, he said, the “spit” figures were still small, but “spit” was expected to become a serious problem as internet telephony became more widespread.”

However, if spit does become a serious threat, some people are concerned about the consequences:

“The costs incurred if we do nothing are very high,” warns SIP developer Henning Schulzrinne of Columbia University . It had taken a long time before anyone reacted to the now-familiar email spam, he pointed out, and now the implementation of countermeasures was struggling along behind the problem. Schulzrinne is one of the authors of an internet draft that contains preliminary recommendations. “Do we really want to wait until we have a VoIP botnet problem?”, Schulzrinne asked.
As with email spam, the developers who are already working on possible defences have no magic recipe against “Spit”. Among the possible options mooted are solutions involving the identification and authentication of callers, statistical solutions – meaning the blocking of mass calls emanating from one account – or defence through the cost of making a contact (something that was considered for email, but was swiftly rejected).

I tend to lean towards the side of caution here. I would rather have people working on this as early as now and ready to face the threat when it does arise. How about you? What do you think about all this ruckus?

Everyone knows this – IP voice calls can be prone to eavesdroppers. Yup, even the virtual walls have ears. Whether you are using VOIP for business or for personal purposes, I am quite sure that you would rather have your conversations private, right? Though VOIP has tons of positive points on its side, it is a sad fact that it could be more prone to eavesdropping than wired telephones. How so? It is because of a simple thing – VOIP has no wired connection that would require an eavesdropper to tap into the wires, something that might not be that easy to do without being detected. With VOIP, however, all one needs to listen in on another person’s conversation is to intercept the data that is being transmitted over the network. With the proper tools, anyone can capture and analyze the data – in effect, listen to your conversations.

How do you ensure that no one is listening in on your voice calls? It is simple – by using some sort of encryption method. Encrypting your voice calls is a simple matter and will make it almost impossible for other people to snoop on your conversations.

One popular method of encrypting VOIP calls is Zfone. This software is developed by Phil Zimmerman and is free to download. It is perfect for VOIP users who do not have much know how, technologically speaking. All you need to do is to download the program, install it and you’re good to go. One drawback of the Zfone is that in order for your call to be secure, the party you are calling has to have it installed as well.

Another method of encryption is what is dubbed as built-in encryption. It is basically what VOIP clients do. Skype, for example, has built-in encryption – the user does not have to do anything in this regard.

For businesses, Transport Layer Security (TLS) and IP Security (IPSec) seem to be the best bet. These two methods are quite robust and prevent external unauthorized tampering. The level of security they offer makes them very attractive for business owners. To date, TLS seems to be gaining more ground in terms of popularity simply due to the fact that it is more efficient and does not take up as much bandwidth as IPSec does.

There are other ways of keeping your voice calls confidential. So what’s keeping you? Take that step and rest assured that no one is eavesdropping on you.