Mon, Jul 4 2005 23:27
bradley
VOIP may be hot, but I'm still not Peer to Peering
What's hot these days? Voice over Internet Protocol. But that doesn't mean I like the way that VOIP is offering up services in all instances. There are a couple of free [or near free] VOIP options that rely on the same technology as peer to peer technology...and well...let me just say that anythng that has the words 'peer to peer' ... I'd rather not have that technology in my network. Oh sure folks can say that they've run it with Snort and examined the packet flow across that and they didn't see any traffic inside their network...but I'll think I'll pass.
I had an instance where I needed to talk to someone in the former Russian states and I chose to do a phone call than to set up a Peer to Peer VOIP. I'm watching this TV show on Showtime that is talking about blowing through the myths and getting the real story [it's from Penn and Teller] and while you can tell me that you've done your homework that you aren't sharing much on your servers when you Peer to peer with VOIP, the possibility that you might is just not acceptable to me.
So if you are offering VOIP to your clients, talk about the risks, give you clients the real facts. Some VOIP technologies don't rely on a peer to peer model that comes inside to your server. Some handle the potential security issues much better.
Ask the hard questions. Do your homework. Your clients want you to.
P.S. When I say...do your homework... I also mean read the EULAs
4.1 Permission to utilize Your computer. In order to receive the benefits provided by the Skype Software, You hereby grant permission for the Skype Software to utilize the processor and bandwidth of Your computer for the limited purpose of facilitating the communication between You and other Skype Software users.
4.2 Protection of Your computer (resources). You understand that the Skype Software will use its commercially reasonable efforts to protect the privacy and integrity of Your computer resources and Your communication, however, You acknowledge and agree that Skype cannot give any warranties in this respect.
http://www.skype.com/company/legal/eula/
...there are some VOIP setups that do not need to 'borrow' your computer processor power and there are some that don't go through your computer.
Some organizations ban it for that reason...therefore... do your homework so you can guide your client into making the right decisions. For my firm, the risk is greater than the benefits for 'this' type of VOIP.
Filed under: Security
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