Vonage is in for troubled times in the VoIP world

by Corina Ciubotaru

A recent find by a security firm called Sipera can potentially worry Vonage users. It seems that hackers can intercept and divert calls to their liking and callers would never know. They also risk spam, spoofing and Denial of Service attacks apart from eavesdropping, as the company does not encrypt voice conversation packets; attacks can be easily performed by anyone interested, as programs that capture unencrypted packets and reconstruct them are available free of charge. Even though the find has been made public a month ago, Vonage has yet to comment on the measures it will take to solve the problem; that is, if it will take any measures at all. It has to deal with other problems also concerning its service, as AT&T has announced it sued Vonage for patent infringement regarding technology allowing users to connect to standard phone lines. The two are trying to resolve the matter outside of court, as the Internet phone company has been getting used to doing lately; it paid $80 million to Sprint Nextel after losing a trial and settled with Klausner Technologies after agreeing to license patents used in Internet voice-mail services. All of these troubles made Vonage shares fall by 15 percent on Monday and deepened its financial crisis so the future doesn't look all that bright; being the best-known VoIP provider in the U.S. and a thorn in AT&T's side will only mean more lawsuits are ahead. Latest numbers from Vonage show its revenue for Q2 amounted to $206 million, compared to AT&T's $30.1 billion revenue in Q3.

related story: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20071024/tot-uk-vonage-hackers-b86c26b_2.html

by Corina Ciubotaru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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