Security being ignored as VoIP deployments increase

Even though VoIP is well on its way to widespread adoption, a new survey from In-Stat has found that many businesses haven't yet taken steps to increase security to take account of these new converged communications systems.

The market research firm says that its survey of US firms found that even though securing VoIP infrastructures will become increasingly important as businesses extend their IP telephony deployments to locations beyond the LAN, a worrying proportion are not embarking on VoIP security programs.

"No mechanisms for securing VoIP had more than 50% penetration across all sizes of business," revealed Victoria Fodale, In-Stat analyst. "Proactive measures, including periodic security audits and pre-deployment assessments had low percentages of penetration too, even among the larger organisations."

The In-Stat survey also found that four-fifths of respondents deployed some type of VoIP solution in their companies and that between 2007 and 2010, 168 million IP PBX lines will be shipped into the business premises in the US . One by-product is that the usage of collaboration and conferencing products that leverage VoIP is increasing.