Monday, September 26, 2005

It’s really remarkable the complete and utter tripe that some "news" organizations will publish.  The object of my disdain today is the Vancouver Sun.  Writer Gillian Shaw has published one of the silliest, and most hysterical pieces on phone spam that one could imagine.  Titled "Phone spam a security risk", it purports to be about the risk of unwanted cellular calls, but then does a sharp right turn onto the bogeyman of Spam on Internet Telephony (SPIT).  Take this excerpt for instance…

"You could get calls with the wrong number, calls to sell sex toys, you may even get calls in the middle of the night because someone can hit the Send button and put out 50,000 calls."

Even more disturbing, videophones can deliver a virtual version of the intruder right into your home.

"If they’re calling your daughter and there is a naked man out there coming up on the screen, one call is one too many," said Pais.

You might see a naked man on your video phone… and how many people own video phones, again, George Jetson?

In Oh SPIT! Security Woes Hit VoIP Too, MSNBC provides a more balanced approach.  Essentially, they argue that VoIP security issues are just like the web security issues of today.  And yes, they go off the deepend again on SPIT.  SPIT is going to be an issue, no doubt.  And there will be a technical solution to that problem as well, no doubt. 

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