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Gartner Targets VoIP FUD |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Tuesday, 14 June 2005 |
Speaking at a three-day security summit, Gartner analyst Lawrence Orans, poured scorn on the FUD over security threats to VoIP.
The analysts also pointed to a wide range of scare campaigns that were holding back innovation and take-up of potentially disruptive technologies. Gartner says companies are now hesitant to implement new technologies because of perceived security risks. These risks are exaggerated says the analyst firm.
The company identified VoIP, mobile malware, dangers to VPNs, the insecurity of wireless networking and the belief that regulatory compliance equals security as the top five issues holding the industry back.
"Many businesses are delaying rolling out high productivity technologies, such as wireless local area networks (WLANs) and IP telephony systems, because they have seen so much hype about potential threats," said Lawrence Orans, principal analyst at Gartner.
"We've also seen the perceived need to spend on compliance reporting for Sarbanes-Oxley hyped beyond any connection with the reality of the legislation," added John Pescatore, vice president and Gartner Fellow.
Gartner says the reality is that security attacks are rare for IP telephony. Preventive measures for securing an IP telephony environment are very similar to securing a data-only environment. IP telephony eavesdropping is the most over-hyped threat. Eavesdropping is unlikely to happen since it requires local area network (LAN)-based access to the intranet. The attackers must be inside the company because they have to be on the same LAN as the IP telephone that is subject to the eavesdropping attack.
Gartner analysts said companies can encrypt voice traffic to protect IP telephony eavesdropping, but typically it is not required. It is no more difficult to eavesdrop on voice packets than it is on data packets.
"Enterprises that diligently use security best practices to protect their IP telephony servers should not let these threats derail their plans," Mr. Orans said. "For these enterprises, the benefits of IP telephony far outweigh any security risks."
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