MagicJack Security

zfuntastic · Post by **zfuntastic** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:16 pm

I was thinking about using a magic jack line for business - and I want to keep my conversations confidential. Is there any vulnerability in MagicJack that would allow anyone to be able to listen in on my calls?

davrow · Post by **davrow** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:27 pm

Yes, VOIP is not a secure system.

If you want secure over the Internet, you will have to use a solution that encrypts. Meaning, hardware at both ends that matches.

zfuntastic · Post by **zfuntastic** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 2:13 pm

thanks davrow - so, I guess it's just as security as Vonage. But, I was reading around in this forum and saw a post that said there is a 60 minute limit on calls - that won't work for me because I often have calls over an hour.

az2008 · Post by **az2008** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 2:18 pm

zfuntastic wrote:that won't work for me because I often have calls over an hour.

There's been one unconfirmed report that the cap was raised to 2 hours. (It was original 30 minutes for a day or two). http://www.phoneservicesupport.com/post30342.html#30342

Mark

zfuntastic · Post by **zfuntastic** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 7:39 pm

I can confirm that today I called my home number (vonage) from my magicjack phone at 4:36 pm and the call lasted until 6:19 pm. The reason I lost the call is that my 4 yr old son and I started having fun with the feedback and echo from the phones and accidently hung up.

Maybe something has changed with the limitations or I just got lucky.

mberlant · Post by **mberlant** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 9:51 am

The very technology that makes VoIP insecure actually provides security by obfuscation.

Since all traffic on the internet is packetized, and since all RTP traffic (the packets that carry the actual digitized voice) is UDP, each UDP packet chooses its path from origin to destination independently of each other packet. This means that someone who wants to snoop on your call would need to, in all practicality, be physically inside your telephone closet or that of MJ's termination provider to be able to grab enough of the packets of your conversation to be able to piece it together.

If you are worried about a snoop inside your company, you need to put a voice encrypter on your (and the other party's) phone. Otherwise, don't worry about protecting a $20/year service with $5000 equipment.