It is often said that understanding the problem is 90% of the solution, and VoIP security is no exception. It is fear of the unknown which is likely to elicit a knee-jerk reaction of panic, so the first step is to understand the threats and then classify them. We also have to ask the question: what does security mean to me and what does it mean to my customers?
Security to the customer means protecting their device and identity and the continuity of their service. Security to the service provider means protecting their network their revenue and their customers. In this feature we will look at service disruption and service theft.
Will IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) revolutionise communications networks overnight? Perhaps not, but operators are preparing to deliver a new set of ubiquitous multimedia services. To achieve this, standards and networks will have to evolve over a period of time. This means that equipment purchased today must be IMS ready. Only if this approach is taken can an operator ensure that network investment is optimised.
The global telecommunications industry has grown and thrived due to competition benefiting the consumer through new services and competitive tariffs. However, none of this would be possible without the ability of competing networks operators to interconnect their networks. Operators have traditionally handed off PSTN traffic to one another via a number of interconnect switches, but with the migration to all-IP networks, that is about to change.
