VOIPSA wants to make VOIP more secure

March 29, 2005      Page 1 of 3

The VOIPSA (VOIP Security Alliance Group), formed to head off VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) security problems, drew up its first set of priorities today, setting up a taxonomy to classify threats, and establishing the requirements for making VOIP secure.

The VOIPSA, which was established last month and includes Verizon Communications Inc., Nortel Networks Corp., VeriSign Inc., PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and about 50 other vendors and service providers, also announced its first board of directors.

Initially, the group will set up two committees, according to David Endler, VOIPSA chairman and director of security research at Tipping Point, a 3Com Corp. company that sells intrusion prevention gear. One committee will figure out a way to classify threats and the other will define security requirements for VOIP equipment and security components, as well as for network architecture and management and user authentication.

Armed with the results of these committees, VOIPSA will move on to defining best practices, developing test methodologies, driving research into vulnerabilities and educating the industry and public, Endler said. VOIPSA is not intended as a standards organization but as a vendor-independent resource for the industry, he said.

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