McAfee said its latest research found almost 60 vulnerabilities in VoIP products.

[internet news] Security vulnerabilities continue to plague the VoIP environment, with even the biggest vendors putting out devices that can be easily compromised.

In fact, the situation appears to be getting worse as VoIP becomes more deeply entrenched in the commercial landscape, rather than better.

In a new white paper, VoIP Vulnerabilities McAfee Labs found almost 60 vulnerabilities in voice over Internet products, compared to just under 20 vulnerabilities in 2006. Of the top three vendors, vulnerabilities in Cisco equipment exceeded Nortel and Avaya weaknesses by approximately five to one.

Despite widespread adoption of VoIP, the security situation today resembles that of the earliest days of personal computing, when security was in its infancy, said Kevin Watkins. a security researcher at McAfee Labs and author of the white paper.

"It’s like the security vulnerabilities on the PCs 10 or 15 years ago. It’s basic security stuff, the things they teach you on day one of writing security code," he said.

The report outlines a number of common security risks. Foremost among these is toll fraud.

VoIP Security Issues on the Rise - McAfee said its latest research found almost 60 vulnerabilities in VoIP products