14 DAY TRIAL // VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. It may sound complicated, but it actually is a telephone service that uses the Internet as its network. You need broadband Internet access in order to use it (either cable or DSL). If you have VoIP you can call other telephones based on the same service as well as regular ones and they also have great features like voice mail, caller ID and others. If you want to find out more, and even take a look at some graphics that explain VoIP better, be my guest and click the link.
Of course, just like anything that is Internet-based, you need to be careful around it and use proper security measures, in order for it to work at maximum efficiency. So here are some risks involved: watch were you place your cables, so that no one can unplug a line and use it with another machine (might sound silly, but it's important). Then you need to get a proper configuration so that no one can "sniff" CDP packets. Also, as seen on SecurityFocus, to get things right, you need to create the voice VLAN interface on PC, and if you click the link you can read more about this topic.
But what I've said above are just the basics, you can see more about mitigation techniques, MAC address filtering, the enabling of 8021x, the implementation of new VoIP DMZ networks and more useful stuff on the same site mentioned above. It can come pretty useful as a tutorial, if you are a tech-savvy and know how to work around a VoIP service.
More and more malicious users are discovering the potential of "wiretapping" VoIP, so security measures should be implemented in order to avoid any possible data leaks.