Financial services firms warn of dangers

Businesses should think twice before deploying internet telephony because of its potential security risks, warn IT experts.

Product flaws in corporate networks and voice over IP (VoIP) technology could leave organisations open to attack, says John Meakin, group head of information security at Standard Chartered Bank.

‘I disagree that business advantages of VoIP outweigh the security concerns. If you put all your eggs in one network basket then there is a degree of fragility that you need to protect against,’ said Meakin.

As well as the business dangers of both email and telephony crashing at the same time, insecure internet telephony could be susceptible to eavesdropping, he says.

Hackers and other cyber criminals could also target businesses with software that allows them to listen in on VoIP calls. And employees could be inconvenienced by unsolicited advertising messages left as voice mail, says Meakin.

‘We need to influence the vendors to deliver more secure systems so VoIP can deliver business functionality,’ he said.

Andrew Yeomans, global security director at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, says more needs to be done to secure VoIP before it gains mass business acceptance.

‘I would really like voice over IP to be successful and be able to deliver it to my company, but I don’t think we are here yet,’ he said.

But Andy Thompson, head of infrastructure security services at Capgemini, says security criticisms are over-inflated. ‘If putting all your eggs in one basket is bad, why are so many firms doing it?’ he said.