Evidently no online service comes complete without its fair share of hacker-friendly security vulnerabilities these days. Moreover, the popularity spread attributed to voice-over IP (VoIP) telephony services is now leading Net users to toward yet more potential identity fraud.
VoIP equipment maker raises concerns over telephony ID theft. Image: Mush2274/Flickr.
That’s the concern of VoIP equipment manufacturer Newport Networks, which believes that nefarious members of the hacker community have begun targeting VoIP services in order to eavesdrop on calls, break into accounts, and steal usernames and passwords before then selling that information on.
According to Dave Gladwin, Newport Networks vice president of products, encoded username and password information can be “easily captured and unobscured” when it is routinely sent across public or open wireless networks during VoIP call connection.
He also points out that stolen VoIP information is an attractive scalp for hackers as it currently sells online for more than stolen credit cards. That equates to individual VoIP information selling for around $17 USD, while credit card details generally sell for approximately $12 USD.
While Mr. Gladwin notes that VoIP identity theft is “still at an embryonic stage,” he also suggests that the issue is only likely to become more of a problem as the popularity of voice-over IP online telephony services grows.
And the source of the security leak can, in the majority of cases, be traced back to Internet service providers (ISPs). According to Mr. Gladwin, around 90 percent of ISPs do not provide secure access to VoIP services, but would need to charge account holders as little as between $4 and $8 USD in order to provide appropriately enhanced security protection.
In answer to Newport Networks’ growing security worries, eBay-owned VoIP service Skype claims that its users are able to rely on end-to-end encryption, which delivers thorough protection for account information regardless of whether the call is carried across a public or open wireless connection.
Skype is a freeware-based service that presently boasts more than 310 million user accounts worldwide and provides completely free computer-to-computer telephone access to its members.
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