Everyone hates paying for long distance calling. In recent years, people have gotten away from calling cards and expensive programs on their landlines. For many, the better option was using their cellular phones which offered a cheaper plan for long distance calls. Yet, there is now an even more cost effective way to make calls – through the internet. Better known as VoIP, voice over IP, the system has been increasing in popularity. However, recent development have shown that there is an elevated chance of data breaches occurring with the system. Some companies have responded to the new concern with increased levels of security.

The company leading the charge to raise awareness about the need for security is Newport Networks. Based in the United States, the company is spreading the word about potential data breaches and the vulnerability of individual accounts. According to the vice president of the company, David Gladwin, the market for the logins and passwords is growing. When compared to credit cards, which have been illegally sold on the internet for years, logins and passwords for VoIP have a higher price. On average, they cost around $17, about five dollars higher than credit card numbers. While most people are unaware of the trafficking of stolen information on the internet, there has been an increase in the number of new subscribers to ID theft services, such as Lifelock.

In talking with Mr. Gladwin, he mentions that the threat of losing personal information is not as big of a concern for large companies that use VoIP. Their information is safely guarded in encrypted serves. The people who are really at risk are individual users, who use their home wireless networks to complete the calls. Gladwin said that when calls are completed, the login and password are sent along with the call in a form that is “easily captured and unobscured.” He goes on to explain that over 90% of the VoIP providers do not provide secure networks for calls. The software provided by Newport Networks provides encryption that protects the information of the user and only costs around $5 more a month.

However, there is not a consensus in the field about the prevalence of the crime. One VoIP provider, Skpe, says that it provides a service that includes encryption from end-to-end on all of its calls. Yet, it realizes that it is in the minority of companies that provides such high levels of security for its individual customers. Other analysts, such as Ian Fogg of the company Jupiter, state that this is a problem which has been blown out of proportion. Because the field is relatively new, it has not received the same amount of criminal attention as more established sections, such as the trafficking of credit card numbers. Nevertheless, one should stay cautious and carefully monitor all bills and records which show the calls made on their VoIP account.

Tags: lifelock, newport networks, skype

This entry was posted on Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 2:28 am and is filed under Corporate Breaches, Individuals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.