Feds' VoIP phone plan could have security holes, says expert

Last week's cyberattack on federal government websitesis raising concerns about the government's plan to switch many of its landlinesover to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phones.

According to Shared Services Canada, more than 120,000 traditionallandlineshave already been removed or replaced withVoIPtechnology, whichuses a high-speedinternetconnection as a phone line instead of a regularanalogline.

• Anonymoussays it cyberattacked federal government to protest Bill C-51
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Shared Services says the government hopes to save $29 million this year by making the switch.

The security technology is catching up, but slowly.- David Skillicorn

But those savings come with a potential cost, according to David Skillicorn with the School of Computing at Queen's University.

"(VoIP)is, at this moment, a little bit easier to hack. If you want to hack somebody's local telephone call you have to climb up a pole and clip things onto the wire," said Skillicorn.

"The security technology is catching up, but slowly."

Because of those potential security weaknesses, federal departments where secure communication is a high prioritywon't be ditching their landlinesany time soon, Skillicorn added.

Hacker collective Anonymous has claimed responsibility for last week's attacks, which briefly blacked out websites belonging tothe Senate, the Department of Justice and Canada'sspy agencies,CSECandCSIS.

Anonymousclaimed the attack was launched to protest Bill C-51, the government's recently passed anti-terror bill.

No personal information or sensitive government wascompromised by the hack, Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said shortly afterwards.