SIP Encryption
Recent media and legal investigations regarding telephone voicemail hacking within the UK has highlighted an often overlooked area of concern for many e-businesses and professionals alike. The security of your telephone system not only from hackers trying to obtain free telephone calls from your PBX at your expense but other rouge elements of society spying, bugging and tracking your movements and communications.
The security of communications within the UK is covered by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. This legally allows over 28 public bodies to conduct surveillance and access your electronic communications including powers to browse your internet use, email, telephone and fax records, without a warrant and without a subject’s knowledge.
However the biggest worry is the illegal attempts to intercept your communications. Hacking, mailware and bugging is no longer a fantasy script from a James Bond film, it happens everyday to businesses in the real world.
Important rules to remember
1. A call made or received using a landline telephone is not secure or private.
2. A call made or received using a mobile phone is not secure or private.
3. Only calls made between IP handsets or VOIP softphones which are capable of secure voice encryption and that use secure SIP trunking are secure and private. In practical terms this means only internal employee to employee calls can be secured, once a call leaves your IP network such as calling a customers landline or employees mobile, all security is removed.
How to make secure and private telephone calls
Firstly you will require IP handsets or VOIP Softphones which are capable of voice encryption, please contact your telephone supplier to verify that your telephones support Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Real Time Protocol (SRTP). Alternatively there is an updated list of VOIP softphones that support these functions on wikipedia.
Existing clients with Selfcare access may activate this security feature by updating the trunk configuration within the Voice Mode setting to secure encrypted voice.
If you wish to demo this product please contact us for further details.
