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Is Security Holding VoIP Back?
phoneboy writes "Voxilla is running a piece I wrote on security issues present in Voice over IP. While an increasing number of people are ditching their ILEC in favor of using Voice over IP from companies like Vonage, VoicePulse, Packet8, and Broadvox Direct, there are a number of potential security issues to be aware of. Is VoIP secure enough to replace the PSTN as we know it?"
Just look at how many unsecured wireless networks are out there. And most cordless phone users had no problem speaking of easily listenable frequencies for many years.
Whoever said PSTN was secure? All you need to sniff is a wire and the right equipment. And it's easy to do.
I don't want VoIP. Depending on the Internet for all communications (e-mail, IM, and phone) is just a bad idea.
As usual, Michael's title is misleading.
Security is not holding VOIP back.
Security is just one layer that needs to be implemented, particularly when VOIP becomes more widespread. It has very little to do with adoption- just look at how analog cellphones prospered. We all know how easy those were to listen to.
You should get signed keys, or keys directly from the person you want to be talking with. If the somebody wanted to break your security, all they have to do, is be upstream from your ISP. Capture the broadcast of the public key, send you a different one they have the private key for.
Now there are exchange methods that you can use in public, but just passing a key in the clear isn't a good idea. Normally there is some type of key exchange before hand, a trusted third party, or a web of trust used to establish identity, and the trustworthyness of a public key.
Kirby
What annoys me the most is that cell phones still are not treated as "normal" phones by the key places where it matters, such as credit cards, etc. If I pay a monthly bill on a cell phone, and I need a positive credit rating to even get that service plan in the first place, why is that not good enough to establish credit? It annoys me that even though it seems like something that has been overlooked, it also looks like we're just giving extra business to land-line providers. I have no need for such a telephone line, but I will probably have to get one the next time I move as it still is a requirement for many things.
I am feeling fat and sassy
Security is just one of the issues why VoIP has not caught on as an end user technology:
Pricing People think that VoIP is cheap compared to normal telephony. Average people spend around USD 200 per year on land line telephony. While VoIP might seam "free" you still have to pay around USD 300 for an ADSL connection.
Device type While it is technically feasible to install a VoIP client on a PC, it is not exactly the ideal device for a telephone. Also - remember that people usually have several phones in the house. To overcome this you would need VoIP "telephones" which look like a normal telephone. These are reletive expensive compared to normal phones, and requires a dedicated power supply.
Incoming calls In order to receive incoming calls you need to have you VoIP device turned on all the time and connected to the Internet.
Availability A normal landline telephone is usually available 99.98 % of the time. If your ADSL reaches 99.7% you should consider yourself lucky. Furthermore normal phones work during power outages. In some countries this is a regulatory requirement for emergency services.
Billing It would be nice if it was possible to make "free" VoIP calls. In most of the world however, it is the calling party who pays for the call. This means that a VoIP call terminated at a Spanish GSM phone will be charged backwards: The spanish GSM operator charges the VoIP "operator" for "terminating" the call, and the VoIP operator subsequently charges the VoIP "customer". The world has more than 1 billion GSM subscribers. In order to be able to call these you need the billing infrastructure in place even for VoIP. This requirement makes VoIP just as expensive to produce as traditional telephony.
Only a land line solution The world is moving voice calls to mobile phones. So far it has not been shown that VoIP is technically or economically feasible on mobile phones?
Quality It is pretty hard to beat the delay characteristics of a normal landline phone! VoIP has severe delay problems on thin access lines such as ADSL. Usually OK for 2Mb/s and up.
After all VoIP is only a matter of changing layer 3 and 4 in the protocol stack. Why would end customers care?
The places where VoIP is used today it is mostly invisible to the end-user: It is used as a cost cutting technology by a large number of long distance carriers. The service however is sold as normal "high quality" telephony. It is also used in a corporate setting for branch-to-branch calls as well as for PABX replacements. VoIP also makes a lot of sense sense as computer-telephony-integration in call centers.
The next majer breakthrough for VoIP will be VoADSL. VoIP all the way to the customer premises. The interface to the customer however will be a normal POTS jack, full customer service and the associated billing!