Voice over IP is widely seen as one of the next killer applications, integrating data and voice networks as well as applications. However, proprietary voice networks and components also offer good degree of separation and segmentation, increasing confidentiality, integrity and availability of telephony services versus data networks. When these two services are integrated (and in many places they are already), new threats arise and additional risks have to be mitigated. There is no doubt that also the PSTN has seen its share of attacks (war dialing, phreaking, fraud). Migration to VOIP on a large scale will see similar and new types of attacks to the combined infrastructure. It is recommended to separate the two networks logically (or even physically) and conduct an in-depth review of the threats to VOIP and implement effective countermeasures to ensure availability of voice services. The cost savings achieved by using VOIP will mostly be used to implement security.
Seth Godin once again speaks from my heart. I think that good enough is far away from being sufficient anymore. Think about common household goods: The current business plan for creators of measuring cups and other household items is: cheap, one size fits all and throw away in two years to buy again. I recently was at the local IKEA to buy a new measuring jug, but they only had cups with metric and imperial measurement system - and none of them were made of glass, all plastic. I don't want another measuring systems on my cup. This may sound narrow-minded, but I regard those different systems utterly confusing - especially when I'm cooking. I addition, the letters on these plastic cups vanish after a year or two. I went and ordered a glass measuring jug , made from Jena glass in Germany. It wasn't expensive. And it feels light and solid. It's made in Europe. It only has metric marks on it. It will be good for a lifetime. That's a product, that can't be made any b...
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