Downsides of VoIP

Internet phones are the emerging way of communicating over long distances and for business. It offers great telecommunicating solutions with features such as call forwarding and call logs. The IP telephony is not the answer to all communication issues that might come up. Some of the disadvantages are that is can be hacked and the information exploited as well as gaining access to different parts of the network. During the recent Amphion Forum, a conference where device and mobile security experts from different disciplines gather, Ang Cui, a fifth-year grad student from the Columbia University Intrusion Detection Systems Lab, demonstrated how connected devices such as networked printers and voice-over-IP (VoIP) phones can be easily hijacked to give intruders virtually unlimited remote access to extremely sensitive information and allow them to eavesdrop on private conversations. He was also able to gain access to computers and printers. VoIP systems are useful but there are still many improvement to be made to the security.