Security Analysis: Traditional Telephony and IP Telephony

When implemented within an overall security mindset, IP Telephony can successfully address key business problems. It has the potential to dramatically increase the competitive effectiveness of a company and increase shareholder value. Because of the technologies and skill sets involved, IP telephony transcends the traditional job boundaries of data communications and telecommunications. The goal of this paper is to take a step back and analyze the security implications of migrating from a traditional telephony architecture to an IP telephony architecture. The key components of the two architectures, the phones/stations and the PBX/Gatekeeper/Gateway, are analyzed for vulnerabilities snooping/eavesdropping, theft of service, and denial of service..