Dial "H" For Hack

In many companies, the worlds of data networking and telecommunications have merged, and voice and video traffic travels with other enterprise data on the same corporate network. Often known synonymously as voice over IP (VoIP), IP telephony (IPT), and unified communications (UC), this convergence creates unique and special challenges for security professionals. This shift from dual to converged networks requires new thinking and a new approach to security. Unfortunately, IT deploys most UC solutions without much thought to security. This is because networking teams responsible for UC deployment are unaware of the inherent security risks and they don't engage security professionals in the process prior to deployment. Too often, business leaders are so enamored with new UC technologies such as telepresence that they don't realize or suspect their network is less secure. These deployments dramatically enlarge the exploitable attack surface of your network, and there are unique threats to these systems that require specific controls to make them effective and secure.