If you're talking over your IP network right now, then voice-over-IP should be at the top of your security priorities for next year. Securing enterprise IP voice hasn't been on most organizations' radar screens, mostly because VOIP so far hasn't been a popular target of attackers or bug hunters, nor have many organizations torn out their traditional voice systems altogether, anyway. But security experts say it's time to make VOIP security a priority.

For one thing, the cat's out of the bag: VOIP hacking tools, that is, are widely available now. "There had not been widespread availability of those tools until now," says Dan York, best practices chair for the Voice Over IP Security Alliance (VOIPSA) and director of IP technology for Mitel. "Now there will be more interest in [VOIP]...and the cool kids will start hacking VOIP." David Endler, director of security research for TippingPoint, and co-author of a new book called Hacking Exposed: VOIP has released over 20 VOIP hacking tools that he and co-author, Mark Collier, CTO of SecureLogix, wrote while researching the book. The tools cover everything from denial-of-service to adding audio to active IP calls.

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