Review and Enhancement of VoIP Security: Identifying Vulnerabilities and Proposing Integrated Solutions
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Keywords
VOIP, DoS, VPN, SPIT, Malware
Abstract
The prolific use of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) causes this system’s vulnerabilities to become a major concern for individuals or organizations. Based on this concern, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the cyber threats and attacks in VoIP systems. VoIP offers several benefits and advantages; however, it poses significant security risks which can cause serious consequences. At the beginning of this paper, an overview of VoIP, including its architecture, components, protocols and advantages are discussed. Following this, attack vectors and component vulnerabilities are examined, and types of security threats are categorized into different sections for clarity. The types of attacks under discussion involved Denial-of-Service (DoS) and Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks, spoofing threats, registration and call hijacking, Spam over Internet Telephony (SPIT), vishing, malware and toll fraud. Subsequently, existing security solutions for VoIP systems are reviewed, highlighting their strengths, weaknesses and applicability. While some solutions are effective in protecting VoIP, a lack of robustness still exists. Hence, this paper proposes an enhanced security method: the combination of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and firewalls within VoIP systems. This combination can reduce potential cyber risk by enhancing data privacy and protection, and overall system security.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright Telecommunications Association Inc.
Athirah Mohd Ramly, School of Architecture, Computing and Engineering, University of East London, UK
School of Architecture, Computing and Engineering, University of East London, University Way, Docklands Campus London, E16 2RD, United Kingdom
Zi Wei Ng, Department of Computing and Information Systems, Sunway University, Malaysia
Department of Computing and Information Systems, Sunway University, 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway, Petaling Jaya, 47500, Malaysia
Yahya Khamayseh, Department of Computing and Information Systems, Sunway University, Malaysia
Department of Computing and Information Systems, Sunway University, 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway, Petaling Jaya, 47500, Malaysia
Charis Shwu Chen Kwan, Department of Computing and Information Systems, Sunway University, Malaysia
Department of Computing and Information Systems, Sunway University, 5, Jalan Universiti, Bandar Sunway, Petaling Jaya, 47500, Malaysia
Angela Amphawan, Smart Photonics Research Laboratory, School of Engineering and Technology, Sunway University, Malaysia
Smart Photonics Research Laboratory, School of Engineering and Technology, Sunway University, Malaysia
Tse-Kian Neo, CAMELOT, Faculty of Creative Multimedia, Multimedia University, Malaysia
CAMELOT, Faculty of Creative Multimedia, Multimedia University, Malaysia
