VoIP Services Open to Botnet Attacks

VoIP Services Open to Botnet Attacks

According to researchers at Secure Science, voice over IP or VoIP services are more susceptible to botnet attacks. The researchers unveiled techniques to make unwarranted calls from popular VoIP technologies like Skype and Google Voice. 
 

Anyone can use such scheme by merely using cheap PBX(private branch exchange) program to make thousands of free calls. These calls would be implicitly untraceable, thus enabling attackers to establish an automated messaging system that would pilfer classified information from their preys. 

 

Lance James, Secure Science's co-founder, said, "If I steal a bunch of [Skype accounts], I can set up [a PBX] to round-robin all those numbers, and I can set up a virtual Skype botnet to make outbound calls. It would be hell on wheels for a phisher and it would be a hell of an attack for Skype."

 

The researchers also managed to access accounts using sppofcard, an on online service used to display a different caller number or ID from the actual originating caller. Most of the attacks on VoIP services are attributed to its unencrypted voicemail system.  Google just recently fixed the bug on Google voice and added a password requirement to its voicemail system. Skype, on the other, has not patched its flaws as of yet.