How Safe is Your VoIP Service?

By: Ugur Akinci
Submitted: 2007-01-17 15:43:22
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The day begins and ends. Do you know where your unused VoIP (Voice-Over-IP) minutes are?

That’s a fair and urgent question we all must ask ourselves after a Florida businessman down in Miami is accused of stealing the unused minutes of unsuspecting VoIP customers and reselling them to pocket a cool profit of $1 million dollars.

VoIP technology allows people to carry phone conversations over the Internet, and usually at rates much cheaper than the regular phone companies. The VoIP company that I use, for example, allows me to talk within the United States for 1.8 cents a minute. A lot of overseas destinations, including China, cost between 2 to 5 cents a minute.

The alleged crime in question involves hacking into a company’s network and using its IP connection to route the stolen VoIP calls without paying any network fees.

The Florida man is accused of selling 10 million phone minutes and is facing 20 years in jail and a fine of $250,000 if the charges are proven to be true.

Seems like after the ubiquitous e-mail viruses, IM spam and denial-of-service attacks, now it’s VoIP’s turn to bear the brunt of these criminal attacks to scam the consumers and held businesses hostage.

Seshu Madhavapeddy is the chief executive of Sipera Systems of Richardson, Texas, which markets security applications to protect against similar VoIP attacks. Quoted by eWeek.com, Madhavapeddy said the threat is very real and the people ”need to know that older data-oriented security systems will not adequately protect their VoIP infrastructure.”

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Ugur Akinci, Ph.D. is a Creative Copywriter, Editor, an experienced and award-winning Technical Communicator specializing in fundraising packages, direct sales copy, web content, press releases, movie reviews and hi-tech documentation.

He has worked as a Technical Writer for Fortune 100 companies for the last 7 years.

In addition to being an Ezine Articles Expert Author, he is also a Senior Member of the Society for Technical Communication (STC), and a Member of American Writers and Artists Institute (AWAI).

You can reach him at writer111@gmail.com for a FREE consultation on all your copywriting needs.

You are most welcomed to visit his official web site http://www.writer111.com for more information on his multidisciplinary background, writing career, and client testimonials.

While at it, you might also want to check the latest book he has edited:http://www.lulu.com/content/263630

Article source: Expert Articles

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