VoIP Security Challenges: Implications for IT Management Teams

New technology often leads to improved productivity, but it also arrives with new IT challenges, often centering on security. "With any new technology, security functions tend to be the last area that matures," noted Pete Lindstrom, Research Director at Spire Security LLC, a market research firm focusing on security issues. Voice over IP (VoIP) has begun to make significant inroads in the enterprise, so IT managers need to be aware of the unique security challenges it presents.

VoIP is gaining traction because it has the potential to lower telecommunications costs, mainly by reducing corporations' long distance charges, and support applications, like unified communications, that improve employee productivity. Market research firm Infonetics Research Inc. found that worldwide revenue from VoIP equipment rose 54% to $3.9 billion in 2004. As deployments have been rising, companies have begun to become familiar with its security challenges: VoIP features all of the security problems inherent with IP communications and adds a few new items to the mix.

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