Spammers target VOIP

Hackers have proven that voice over Internet Telephony (VOIP) accounts are prone to the nuisance of voice spam, by attacking the university where the co-author of the protocol that VOIP runs on is a professor, says The Guardian.

Henning Schulzrinne, co-author of the session initiation protocol that is used by all the major VOIP services except Skype, says the attack (which left unsolicited marketing messages on multiple phone extensions at Columbia University) might have been targeted at him, but could also have been a result of the institution not having a stringent firewall policy in place.

Either way, he - like many in the computer and Internet security industries - now believes VOIP is the next big target for spammers.

Too many resellers are losing out on consistent profit streams because they have not woken up to the real opportunities of convergence, according to Internet service provider Timico, reports VNU Net.

Convergence has been a hot topic in the channel for some time and is expected to drive the expansion of services such as voice VOIP. However, Timico has suggested that while convergence is moving the market forward, resellers are failing to move with it.

Chris Tombs, chief executive of Timico, explained: "Resellers are not making the most of the opportunities convergence offers when they should be. They are not moving with the market and this is going to have an effect on their business."

Consumers have been warned that using Skype, the software that offers cheap or free phone calls over the internet, could cost more than traditional calls, reports Times Online.

The news emerged as Three, the mobile phone operator, became the first to offer Skype on a traditional mobile handset, allowing users to make free calls to other users anywhere in the world.

Until now, most people have used Skype from their laptops, using a headset to make the calls. The software routes the calls over the Internet. If consumers phone another Skype user, anywhere in the world, it will cost nothing.