Spam requires companies, network service providers, individuals and others to spend lots of money each year on newer and better defenses designed to keep junk from reaching your inbox. Next, VoIP is primed for attack by hackers, spammers, phishers and others in Spam over Internet Telephony (SPIT) or VoIP spam (vamming) attacks, depending on what you'd like to call it. Consider the following:

* Finjan discovered three SPIT attacks during 2007.

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* Marketing messages were left on a number of telephone extensions at Columbia universities during 2007.

* Back in 2005, an e-mail-borne virus shut down roughly 2,000 IP phones that were deployed in a city on the West Coast.

While the SPIT problem is more theoretical than actual at this point, it is a real problem nonetheless and one that could have significant ramifications on companies’ decisions to deploy unified communications. However, you don’t need VoIP in your organization or an IP phone to be a victim: SPITters or vammers, using their own IP telephony infrastructure, can launch attacks against conventional telephone systems, flooding inboxes with junk, tying up your bandwidth and rendering your telephone system more or less useless.

There are defenses against these types of attacks, including NEC’s VoIP SEAL that can be used to differentiate SPIT calls from actual calls. However, the real threat with phishing attacks using VoIP (Vishing), in which seemingly legitimate calls – supposedly from your bank or your credit card company – will attempt to solicit your account number, PIN, etc. People are likely to be fooled even more easily by a telephony-based attack given that there are even fewer clues about the validity of the sender.

And now for something completely different: Osterman Research will be hosting a Webinar on Wednesday, Jan. 23 entitled Exchange Management Strategies for 2008 and sponsored by LiveOffice, Azaleos and Neverfail. You can sign up for this no-charge Webinar.