VoIP Technology: Security Issues Analysis

Abstract

Voice over IP (VoIP) is the technology allowing voice and multimedia transmissions as data packets over a private or a public IP network. Thanks to the benefits that it may provide, the VoIP technology is increasingly attracting attention and interest in the industry. Actually, VoIP allows significant benefits for customers and communication services providers such as cost savings, rich media service, phone and service portability, mobility, and the integration with other applications. Nevertheless, the deployment of the VoIP technology encounters many challenges such as architecture complexity, interoperability issues, QoS issues, and security concerns. Among these disadvantages, VoIP security issues are becoming more serious because traditional security devices, protocols, and architectures cannot adequately protect VoIP systems from recent intelligent attacks. The aim of this paper is carry out a deep analysis of the security concerns of the VoIP technology. Firstly, we present a brief overview about the VoIP technology. Then, we discuss security attacks and vulnerabilities related to VoIP protocols and devices. After that, we talk about the security profiles of the VoIP protocols, and we present the main security components designed to help the deployment of a reliable and secured VoIP systems.