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I was inspired by a post from Luca Filigheddu, a perennial VoIP commentator who always has something to say, who posted about his list of top 30 VoIP thought leaders who used twitter and their twitter accounts. My list is much smaller, but contains a few people I thought deserved to be on the list (and one that isn’t actually on twitter – oops sorry about that!)

For a longer list, I highly recommend reading Luca’s post – it is very insightful. 

Frederik Hermann – netzkobold

Frederik Hermann is Director of Global Marketing for JAJAH. A professed marketing communications and social media professional and originally from Germany, Frederik moved to the Silicon Valley to take the role at Jajah.

Jajah, is the world’s most innovative communications company, offers flexible, next-generation telephony solutions for consumers and businesses. JAJAH’s award-winning communication services make it easier for people to stay in touch using any device.

Follow Frederik at: http://twitter.com/netzkobold

Jeff Pulver – jeffpulver

Wow, what can you say about Jeff Pulver that hasn’t already been said?!?! Well, if you are new to VoIP, here is what you need to know: he is a bit of a pioneer and visionary in the world of VoIP, founder of the one time ‘Pulver media empire’ (which went bankrupt in 2008). Most importantly, Pulver is the chief writer of what’s referred to as “the Pulver Order”, which was adopted in 2004 by the Federal Communications Commission as the first FCC ruling regarding internet protocol communications. The order ruled that computer-to-computer VoIP is not a telecommunications service. He coined the term purple minutes to describe value-added IP network traffic. (from Wikipedia). Now he is working in the world of social communications, unified communications and HD Voice.

Follow Jeff at: http://twitter.com/jeffpulver

Mark Spencer – markster

Another guy that hardly needs an introduction, Mark Spencer is the  creator’ of Asterisk, the largest and most popular open source VoIP project and currently also the CTO and Founder of Digium, the company that ‘owns’ the open source project.

Follow Mark at: http://twitter.com/markster

Craig Walker – cwalker123

This is a guy, you might start hearing about if you haven’t already, what with the buzz happening around the recently dusted off Google Voice project (that just might one day go beyond its limited US Beta). Why would you hear about Craig? and why should you care what he has to say? Well, he is the former CEO of Dialpad as well as the former CEO of GrandCentral, which was purchased by Google and re-launched as Google Voice

Follow Craig at: http://twitter.com/cwalker123

Om Malik – OM

Om Malik, and the GigaOM network. Not specifically VoIP, but technology and telecommunications with lots of VoIP thrown in. Evangelists and connectors that you wouldn’t want to miss. There are lots more that should be on this list, if you can think of any more let me know and I will update this post.

Follow OM at: http://twitter.com/om

Luca Filigheddu – Filos

Luca Filigheddu is an executive with 10 years of management experience in VoIP, Social Media and Product Marketing as well as a well recognized expert in the VoIP market.

He’s currently CEO at Abbeynet, an italian company which develops technologies and services in the field of IP Communications since 1999. Abbeynet is the company behind services like Chocophone, Abbeyphone,Sitòfono and Hictu!.

Follow Luca at: http://twitter.com/filos

   

John Chambers, Cisco

 

OK, well, this is NOT twitter and you can’t follow him, but come on, you have to follow this guy anyway you can because he is the 900lb gorrilla in any room talking about VoIP. You can’t have a top list of anything Internet/telecom and not have John Chambers on it! You can follow what he does on video on youtube – see what he has to say.

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How many times have you waited at your desk for an important phone call? Or made a mad dash across the office when you heard your desktop phone ringing? Would you like to be able to receive calls to your business number when you’re away from the office, without having to lug around your laptop and softphone?

Well, now you can! If you have aniPhone or iPod Touch, the SipPhone on iPhone  ($6.99) from VNetCorp allows you to make and receive office calls from any wireless hotspot, anywhere in the world, without using your regular cellular phone service. Your iPhone becomes an extra office phone that rings when your desk phone does, for free! Think of it as a cordless phone that works while you are in the office and also from any wireless hotspot.

To set up your iPhone as a wireless SIP phone this is what you need to do:

1. First, in whatever PBX or Voip service you use, create a new endpoint and write down the SIP ID (or just get a SIP ID)

2. You will also need the IP Address of your PBX or Sip Server 

3. You will also need your account name and password (if your system requires one)

4. Then simply download the SipPhone iPhone application through the App Store (search for “SipPhone on iPhone”) and configure it.

1. Open SipPhone, Tap Accounts, then Tap Edit.

2. Tap ‘+’ and you should see the following:

3. Tap Domain and enter the LAN IP address that you wrote down earlier.

4. Tap Username and enter the SIP user/account name that you wrote down earlier (for example, 10007.)

5. Tap Password and enter anything as a password; some systems do not require a password, but SipPhone requires you to enter one.

6. Tap Save, Tap Done, then Tap the on/off toggle button to turn SipPhone on.

3. Now all you have to do is connect your iPhone to your WiFi network. 

That’s it! You can now make and receive VoIP calls with your iPhone or iPod Touch using a wireless connection and not using up Cell minutes.

NOTE: To use SipPhone on an iPod Touch, you will also need a microphone or a headset with a microphone.

Dan York gives a great Podcast (delivered here in a powerpoint presentation) about VoIP Security. It is an enjoyable anecdotal talk, where he sets up a story and tells the pitfalls that can begall an unsuspecting ’sysadmin steve’ who inherits a VoIP system. Really, the intent here is that there are a number of potential security holes in VoIP that at the very least you need to be aware of. If your phone calls and what  you say don’t need to be ‘private’ then you probably don’t need to worry too much!

 

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A very basic tutorial from techcentric.org on how to STOP VoIP security threats , CAIN, ARP and MITM attacks. Explains that an ARP Poisoning attack is a man in the middle attack (intercepting data in this case VoIP packets).

They recommend that you use SKYPE instead of SIP to avoid man in the middle attacks; or download ZPhone, it works with most SIP clients, or put your VoIP calls on VPN.

See the SIP protocol diagram (right)more information on what is happening during a SIP based VoIP call

Not the most insightful tutorial and a few people have commented that there were a few inaccuracies or that it was too basic, I thought it was a great tutorial for a ‘first timer’ trying to get a handle of what is going on with VoIP security threats. I would definitely need more details from here though.

Peter Cox(?) a security consultant specializing in VoIP security has a great Podcast primer on VoIP security examples. He states that there are really three categories of VoIP Security Threats:

1. IP level Threats – shared with the web and email and others, common knowledge to many people already
2. Protocol and application specific threats, based on the way the SIP protocol is designed and is implemented, these VoIP security vulnerabilities can result in misdirected calls, terminated calls, and general call disruption
3. Content related VoIP Security threats, the interfere with the media stream (the voice or video call)

VoIP uses the Internet for sending and retrieving VoIP data. This makes it vulnerable to hackers. For individuals who use VoIP this may not be a problem, but businesses don’t want their information to leak. For this reason VoIP services are dedicated to making their service as secure as possible.

Hackers may ty to tap your call and retrieve all sorts of information. They can retrieve conversations, but also VoIP phone numbers or user identities. When they retrieve this information, they can use your VoIP to make calls themselves. Some hackers may even record your call and use your voice to make calls.

There are a few ways to avoid these security problems. The first is encryption. Encryption works in the same way as when sending credit card information. The data is sent over a safe connection. Another way of averting security issues is by separating VoIP data and other Internet data by using a so-called VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network). The call quality may suffer under these measures. But both methods are an option if calls are to be kept secret.

Viruses sent with VoIP data could also be a risk factor, although this threat hasn’t been seen yet. Viruses don’t only overload the network, but they also reduce the quality of calls.

Another issue is SPIT – Spam over Internet Telephony. Instead of receiving e-mails you receive calls from companies that try to sell you their services and products.

How secure is my VoIP? Certain services maintain security through encryption or the use of a VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network). There are certain things consumers can do themselves.

1. A firewall will protect your computer from malicious attacks. 
2. All downloads should also be checked for viruses or other threats. 

VoIP hardware on the other hand can be unstabilized or shut down if it receives certain types of data. 
Certain Internet phones are sensitive to data piracy. For individuals these security issues may not be of importance. But businesses have sensitive conversations over the Internet. They have their own gateways and equipment, which makes them an easy prey for DOS attacks (Denial of Service) and other assailments.