The most memorable year for security breaches

2011 will undoubtedly go down as one of the most memorable year for security breaches. There were a number of high-profile victims and, while the rampage, some of hacks did target telephone systems. The big lesson was everyone is exposed in some way. Nevertheless the question CIOs must consider is what the degree of risk is and how can it be minimised?

The concept of phone hacking or "phreaking" is nothing new and dates back to the dawn of telephone systems and networks. With modern UC systems now powering businesses worldwide, what does today's risk profile look like? Here are some security concerns:

What are the potential damages associated with communications security? It can be anything from bill shock as a result of unknown, expensive calls, to the loss of revenue associated with call centre downtime.

But, like most innovation advancements, the capability to secure a UC system can be above that of a traditional PABX. Some of the risk factors are similar, however others can be more easily mitigated.

Security policies like voice and data encryption are then supported by UC and potential to perform disaster recovery is as well increased. A UC environment can be "failed over" to a secondary site or somewhere in the Cloud making the business continuity aspects of UC appealing to CIOs tasked with keeping the lights on.