Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), allows you to connect with friends and family over the Internet, but comes with risks.
Risks:
- Spam over Internet Telephony (SPIT), which is a fast, cheap and invasive way for telemarketing messages to reach you.
- Being a victim of spoofing, where an attacker pretends to be a trusted VoIP caller, such as your bank. The objective is to trick you into divulging personal information.
- Identity theft, which can result from cyber criminals gathering bits of information collected from your conversations.
- Eavesdropping, where hackers steal VoIP features like voicemail to get information about the user. Corporations that use VoIP are a main target.
- Data sniffing by hackers to identify, modify, store and play back your conversations.
- Toll fraud by hackers who gain access to corporate phone lists may charge long distance calls to your bill.
Protect Yourself:
- Choose a VoIP provider that has secure encryption capability on their system. Enable all available password and encryption measures to maximize your call privacy and minimize opportunities for hacking in.
- Use a firewall that is customized for VoIP โ one that will constantly scan for threats and attacks, and also alert you to suspicious calling activity.
- All of your devices should always have reputable, effective updated security software โ especially when using VoIP.
- Choose a strong password or hard to guess PIN number to protect your VOIP service account from unauthorized access and charges.