This morning I had some time to look over some of the news feeds and found a few stories of interest.

First I spotted a story Etisalat selects Mitel VoIP platform on a Telecom Paper site. You have to be a member to read it, but the headline caught my eye for a couple of reasons. First was just Mitel. I worked in Ottawa for a time, right near Mitel and had several friends and colleagues there. Also Dan York, who does the great BlueBox podcast works for Mitel. Seeing Mitel make continued inroads into VoIP is a nice touch. They're not the same scale as Nortel or Avaya, but Mitel has always put good product in the market. Gaining traction in the Emirates is a big win for them.

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This press release from XO Communications

XO Communications Tops 3.8 Billion Minutes of VoIP Traffic in Second Quarter of 2006

RESTON, Va., July 17 /PRNewswire/ -- XO Communications today announced that it carried 3.89 billion minutes of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) traffic across its private nationwide IP network in the second quarter of 2006, a 34 percent increase over the previous quarter and a 140 percent increase over the second quarter of 2005. The increase was driven by greater deployment of XO VoIP solutions by businesses and service providers, demonstrating the increasing demand for delivering voice services over an all IP network environment.

"Demand for our Voice over IP services continues to grow as businesses and service provider customers accelerate their migration of voice traffic to services based on IP," said Carl Grivner, CEO of XO Communications. "Our private IP network and robust Voice over IP platform provides customers with the broad nationwide coverage and performance to meet their requirements today and in the future." [full release]

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There are several stories around about a flaw discovered in Asterisk that leaves it vulnerable to DOS attack. Here's a clip from the CIO Tech Informer article

ISS Finds Bugs in Asterisk VoIP Software

Users of the open-source Asterisk VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) product are advised to upgrade their software, following the discovery of two vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to disrupt network service.

The Asterisk team released a new version of the product Saturday, which addresses the problems discovered by Internet Security Systems. (ISS).

Security researchers have been paying more attention to risks in VOIP products as the technology has become more widely used. Over the past few years, ISS began taking a closer look at VoIP security and discovered a number of bugs in such products, said Alain Sergile a technical product manager with ISS.

It's important to note that a fix has been released. If you're running Asterisk, check into this and make sure you aren't left vulnerable. Here are some other stories about it.

Asterisk VoIP platform open to DDoS attacks, security firm says NetworkWorld.com
ISS Uncovers The Risk In Asterisk VoIP News Australia
Asterisk Vulnerable To Denial Of Service Attacks VoIP News

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I caught yet another story from Daily Tech declaring VoIP spam on the rise.

VoIP Spam On the Rise
A new form of spam and phishing is on the rise

As if email spam wasn't bad enough, scammers are finding more sophisticated means of getting to people's private and personal information -- through voice over IP phone services. The new technique involves using phone numbers instead of using websites. Traditional bank scam emails have asked a person to connect to a website that appears to look legitimate. When dialed in, the person is asked to verify their banking information by entering in details like debit card number, passwords and credit card information.

Because these techniques are so widespread, spammers are now asking people to actually call a real phone number. When dialed in, the caller is presented with a realistic message and proceeds to walk the caller through verification steps. Yet again, the caller is asked to enter in private information.

These new phishing attacks use VoIP numbers because they can be easily removed to avoid detection -- new numbers pop up everyday. Also, the numbers are not associated to a subscriber in the same manner as a traditional land-line.

As I've said many times, VoIP spam, or SPIT, or whatever we want to call it represents a potential threat. I don't think anyone is finding it real. But it's frightening and inflammatory, so it gets press coverage. It is not a real problem today, but it is possible. It's on the horizon. It's something we should plan for, but it isn't a reality that's going to impact you today.

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There were at least two other stories that caught my attention, but I'm reading more on those subjects. I think they warrant their own full post in order to really do them justice. I'll get those posted here as I can.

Technorati Tags: Mitel, XO Communications, ISS. Asterisk, VoIP, VoIP security, VoIP SPAM, SPIT