While mobile telephone viruses have been the subject of headlines recently, IP-based telephones could represent a more immediate security threat for many businesses. "Attacks on IP phones are actually quite frequent," said Roy Wakim, convergence solutions manager at Avaya South Pacific. "Security is a major issue."

Voice over IP solutions have gained increasing enterprise acceptance. A study earlier this year by Integrated Research found that 56 percent of medium and large companies were already using IP telephony, and a further 26 percent were planning a trial within 12 months. A key attraction of such systems is reduced maintenance and deployment costs, as a single network can be used for voice and data.

By Angus Kidman at ZDNet.

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