Should Skype Be Banned in the Enterprise?

Security threats can menace peer-to-peer voice If they haven’t done so already, telecom managers should ban Skype from business computers, says Ross Armstrong, an analyst at Info-Tech Research Group in London, Ont. In his opinion, the popular peer-to-peer (P2P) VoIP service doesn’t belong in corporations. Armstrong’s advice followed security-threat announcements from Skype in October, describing how an attacker could cause the program to crash. Skype offered fixes, but the problem suggests malicious code warriors might have the VoIP service in their sights. Skype uses a unique data transfer protocol, making it difficult for network security and technologies to control information traversing the service. It’s also prone to man-in-the-middle attacks, Armstrong says. "The best preventive measure would be to block all downloads to end-user PCs. For actually finding Skype traffic, a third-party Web traffic filter with deep packet inspection might be needed." Armstrong figures 17 million of the 60 million Skype users employ the service for business purposes. But Miercom, a U.S. company that tests communications technologies, says Skype isn’t as bad as some might think. Miercom analyzed Skype’s vulnerabilities and decided that although its inscrutable nature makes the program a potential problem, "our testing shows that neither Skype VoIP nor Skype Instant Messaging poses any readily exploitable security threat." "Of course, next week some vulnerability might be exploited. But as we go to press, we believe that Skype poses more worries about what isn’t known than actual security concerns." The full review can be found at www.networkworld.com. Online auction house eBay Inc. announced its intention to acquire Skype in September. Armstrong says the combination of eBay and Skype makes the VoIP service a tempting target for hackers. But Skype is developing a corporate-friendly version (see Telemanagement #225), and eBay might continue to develop Skype into a business-class service. It’s another step in P2P’s maturing into an enterprise product (see "Peer to Peer Telephony" on page 6 of this issue). But for now, perhaps Armstrong is right to suggest Skype isn’t so much a stepping stone as a snag that could trip unwary IT organizations. Be cautious about this unknown communications quantity. Phone Records Theft Sparks InvestigationThe CRTC started asking tough questions of carriers in November, wondering just how a U.S. data broker obtained phone records belonging to Canadian citizens. The commission sent a letter to Bell Canada, Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp. asking for details about the service providers’ security practices after Maclean’s magazine published an article about purchasing Canadian phone records. The magazine outlined the ease with which it collected the home and mobile phone records of Jennifer Stoddart, the federal privacy commissioner, through Locatecell.com, a States-side information seller. Maclean’s said Bell and Telus were investigating, and Rogers was "trying to keep ahead" of thieves. In mid-November Bell stated it would take "additional steps to further tighten the safeguards in place to protect customer information," adding that the data broker must have obtained the phone records "through subterfuge and misrepresentation." In its letter, the CRTC requested details regarding the protections in place to thwart such activity, and details about how the carriers validate the identities of people requesting information. Nortel Loses Two More ExecsChief research officer Brian McFadden and global services president Sue Spradley are the latest executives to leave Nortel Networks. News of their departures came just a couple of weeks after the company brought in a new CEO, Mike Zafirovski. Reports suggested the changes reflect the new chief’s attempt to put his stamp on the firm. Nortel is gaining a reputation for having a revolving door in front of the executive offices. The company has hired, promoted, and parted ways with numerous bigwigs over the past few years as it strug-gled through accounting problems, flagging profits and the changing com-petitive landscape. In other Nortel news, Zafirovski and his new employer settled a lawsuit from Motorola Inc., where Zafirovski used to work. Motorola sued because it was worried that competitive secrets could make their way into Nortel’s business plans. Zafirovski has to repay a US$11.5 million portion of his separation agreement with Motorola. Nortel said it would reimburse the CEO. MTS-Allstream Chops 800 JobsManitoba Telecom Services Inc. will say goodbye to 800 staffers in the first half of 2006. Most of the cuts will occur at Allstream, the national business-minded exchange carrier that MTS acquired in 2004. MTS said margins are squeezed by new competitors and services like VoIP, as well as shifting revenues across the telecom sector. "The company anticipates the legacy data services it provides to customers through its relationship with AT&T Corp. will … decline in 2006 as customers continue to migrate to IP solutions," reads a press release. Meanwhile, Pierre Blouin, former Bell Canada executive, is taking over as MTS CEO. Former chief Bill Fraser announced his intention to retire in September. 3G Comes to CanadaAliant Inc., Bell Canada and Telus Corp. promise wireless downloads of 400 to 700 Kbps on the new Evolution Data Optimized (EV-DO) iteration of their CDMA networks. Bell and Telus announced the Kyocera Passport, a PC card for EV-DO access for laptop computers. The two carriers also unveiled the BlackBerry 7130e with EV-DO connectivity. Telus released its Connection Manager Software, which lets laptop computer users find the best wireless signal, be it from a hotspot, the 1X network or the EV-DO infrastructure. Bell offered up the Samsung a920, the first EV-DO handset in Canada. Aliant’s EV-DO rollout started as a trial in November with 35 participants in Halifax. Telus Moves On from StrikeAfter months of dealing with a labour dispute, Telus Corp. is finally proceeding with its business plans. The service provider announced it would hire approximately 800 new staffers. It is also moving to combine its wireless and wireline units for improved customer service and internal efficiency. Telus managed to sign an agreement with its unionized workers in November that spelled the end of a five-month strike in Alberta and B.C. The deal came about after Telus and the union’s executive members forged a tentative agreement in October—an agreement the union’s voting members narrowly rejected at the end of the month. Despite the setback, Telus and the union eventually returned to negotiations and, given changes on the telco’s part, came to an understanding that voting members liked. The agreement gives Telus workers pay increases, but Telus held onto its "flexible" contracting-out provisions, which had been a sticking point. Telus lost some customers in the kerfuffle. The B.C. division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), for instance, took its wireless business to Bell Canada, in protest of the Telus strike. Rogers Releases mFormsRogers Communications Inc. unveiled mForms in November, a wireless data-collection system that lets field services workers fill out job-completion forms, as well as access information about customers and job sites, all from handheld computers connected to their employers’ back-office applications via the Rogers wireless network. It’s a productized version of systems Rogers has built for particular customers over the years. MForms relies on software from TrueContext Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co., and it employs Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system. It costs $125 per user per month. Although meant for SMBs, mForms could be used by large companies in the future, say the system’s makers. Who’s on First? Who Knows?Who’s number 1 among the telecom equipment vendors? Two firms claimed victory atop the industry in November, both pointing to the same market-research report as evidence. Avaya Inc. said it was ranked first by Reno, Nevada-based Synergy Research Group Inc. in IP telephony revenues and port shipments in Q3 2005 (25% and 22% of the global market share, respectively). But Cisco Systems Inc. also turned to Synergy’s Q3 2005 report as evidence that it’s in the lead with the highest total voice revenue—pure IP, hybrid IP-TDM and TDM PBXs combined. Whom to believe? On the face of it, the two vendors’ claims are flatly contradictory. Synergy offers positive comments about both Avaya and Cisco in each firm’s press release bullhorning its top spot. Telemanagement asked Synergy how thiscould be, and the research company emailed response was cursory and suitably enigmatic: "Cisco is currently leading the ‘Enterprise Voice’ segment, and Avaya is leading the ‘Enterprise Telephony’ segment." Telecom Education for KidsSaskTel introduced a new video game program late last year, Project Connect. It presents seven video games that teach children how various connective technologies work, such as how emails travel the Internet, how satellites work, and how cellphone service works. End of File Sharing As We Knew ItA federal court judge in Australia has ordered Kazaa owner Sharman Networks Ltd. to install filters to prevent users on the file-sharing network from exchanging copyrighted material. Searches across Kazaa containing 3,000 keywords, such as the names of popular recording artists, would be blocked, according to an Associated Press article in November. In September the Australian authorities found Sharman guilty of copyright infringement. In November Grokster Ltd., a file-sharing software developer, shut itself down to settle a piracy lawsuit from the movie and music industries. In June the U.S. Supreme Court decided copyright holders are allowed to file piracy lawsuits against companies that encourage online music and movie theft. The decision hurt Grokster’s defence that it’s not responsible for users’ actions. The court pointed out that Grokster made no attempt to block illegal file sharing. Grokster said it’s impossible to block such activity. DogphonesVancouver-based On4 Communications plans a $350 cellphone for dogs this year. The bone-shaped PetCell, a GPS-equipped hands-free device, will enable owners to track runaway dogs, and allow them to talk to lonely home-alone pets. Calls to the dogphone will require a password, to ensure the pet isn’t bothered by wrong numbers and telemarketers. Usenet Not Dead YetOne of the people who helped bring Usenet to Canada says the old-fashioned data service is still useful, but he isn’t surprised Rogers Communications Inc. no longer provides access to it. Brad Templeton, chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Usenet pioneer, envisions an updated version of the service with new functions. He spoke to us via email in November, a few days after Toronto-based Rogers announced that as of December 15, customers would no longer be able to access Usenet via the Rogers Internet service. Rogers said Usenet’s day in the sun is done. "Usenet was one of the earliest forms of user discussion on the Internet, but today has largely been replaced by blogs, instant messaging, personal Web pages and other tools," reads a notice on the carrier’s website. Templeton, who helped hook up the first Usenet access point at the University of Waterloo when he was a student there in the 1980s, says Rogers’ decision might also have to do with the content available through Usenet, some of which is illicit. He says Usenet deserves a makeover to better integrate it with the Web. Adding ownership and responsibility to the Newsgroup mix would help. These online meeting spots are largely un-moderated now. Templeton says some of Usenet’s features hold up well. The service bests Web message boards for speed of delivery, and users can access newsgroups anonymously. "Usenet newsreaders … are much better at handling large-volume discussions with threads than any mail tool or Web board we have yet seen, even though are decades older," he writes. "I can’t imagine tracking 100 Web boards with hundreds to thousands of messages every day." Usenet began in 1979 at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, where graduate students Jim Ellis and Tom Truscott created it to send messages among Unix machines. Some people estimate that there are more than 40,000 newsgroups in existence today.

Should Skype Be Banned in the Enterprise?

News | 01/01/2006 5:00 am EST

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