Author Archives: Dan York

Dan’s new book: Seven Deadliest Unified Communications Attacks

Seven Deadliest UC AttacksFor those of you listening to Blue Box, you may be interested to know that I (Dan) recently wrote a book for Syngress called the “Seven Deadliest Unified Communications Attacks“. In the book, I discuss the common theme that Jonathan and I have talked about on the show of needing to look at communications security at a higher-level, more “holistic” level. It’s not enough just to think about the security of your IP-PBX… you also have to think about the security of your mail servers, your firewalls, your databases, etc.

You also have to think beyond voice to also including instant messaging/IM, video, presence, mobile devices and more. And… you have to think about them in the context of a globally-distributed IP infrastructure.

Information about the book and links to resources mentioned in the book are available from the books website:

www.7ducattacks.com

I have also posted links there to two podcast interviews I’ve done related to the book:

I am working on getting permission to run those both as Blue Box Special Editions (I have approval on the VUC session).

In many ways, much of the book came out of the three years of great conversations that Jonathan and I had with so many of you – and I have to thank all of you who have participated in the Blue Box community over the years for your questions, your comments and all the feedback. I hope you will find that this book continues that dialogue and discussion about how to secure our communications networks.


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Blue Box #86: An Update on Blue Box, One Year Later

Synopsis: Blue Box #86: Dan and Jonathan provide an update on what’s happened in the year since Blue Box #85 and talk a bit about what’s next


Welcome to Blue Box: The VoIP Security Podcast #86, a 19-minute podcast from Dan York and Jonathan Zar covering VoIP security news, comments and opinions.

Download the show here (MP3, 9 MB) or subscribe to the RSS feed to download the show automatically.

You may also listen to this podcast right now:

Show Content:

  • 00:20 – Intro to the show, contact information and how to provide comments.  Welcome to all the new listeners – and to all those listeners who have been here for so long!
  • Dan and Jonathan discuss what has happened in the past year and why there have not been new shows.
  • Discussion of what some of the main issues in VoIP security have been over the past year.
  • Mention that fugitive Edwin Pena was extradited back to the US and arraigned in New Jersey court last Friday
  • Mention of the recent traffic on the VOIPSEC public mailing list
  • Wrap-up of the show
  • 19:38 – End of show 

Comments, suggestions and feedback are welcome either as replies to this post or via e-mail to blueboxpodcast@gmail.com. Audio comments sent as attached MP3 files are definitely welcome and will be played in future shows. You may also call the listener comment line at either +1-415-830-5439 or via SIP to 'bluebox@voipuser.org' to leave a comment there. 

Thank you for listening and please do let us know what you think of the show.


If you found this post interesting or useful, please consider either subscribing to the RSS feed or following BlueBox on Twitter.


eComm 2009: Dan, Jonathan and Martyn together for the first time

Last week at the Emerging Communications Conference (eComm) 2009 in San Francisco, a remarkable event happened: Jonathan Zar, Martyn Davies, and I (Dan York) all wound up at the same place at the same time. Over the 3.5 years since we started Blue Box back in October 2005, Jonathan and I have met at events, Martyn and I have met and Jonathan and Martyn have met. But the three of us had never been together at the same place.

Now the particular place we met was a “Dev Dinner” hosted by (my employer) Voxeo after the end of eComm – and we had some great conversations along with the food. Martyn produced his camera and we did record the actual event:

bluebox-at-ecomm2009.jpg

Alas, it was too noisy there for us to do any actual recording, but it was great to have all three of us there. For those who may not recall the history, Martyn was one of our earliest listeners and is the person who provided both the image that we use for Blue Box (in iTunes, in the MP3 file, etc.) and also the music that we use for the intro and outro. He’s also guest-hosted several times and contributed a couple of interviews over the years.

P.S. And yes, Jonathan and I will be getting some more shows out…

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Speaking on “SIP Trunking and Security” at ITEXPO in Miami Feb 3rd

ITEXPO-East-logo-2.jpgIf you will be in Miami at ITEXPO February 2-4 you are welcome to attend a free “SIP Trunking And Security” session I (Dan York) will be doing as part of Ingate Systems’ SIP Trunking Workshops. The SIP trunking workshops are free to all attendees even if you only register for an exhibit pass.

My session will be 11:15-12:30 on Wednesday, February 3rd, and if you do attend please feel free to come up and introduce yourself (or drop me a note in advance to let me know to look out for you). I’ll be bringing my recording gear, too, and the talk will eventually go out in my Blue Box Podcast feed so you will be able to hear it later.

P.S. If you are attending ITEXPO and your company makes a product or provides a service related to VoIP security, please feel free to let me know and perhaps we can schedule an interview to go out as a Blue Box Special Edition.

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FYI – “Security Bloggers Network” in transition… stay tuned…

For those of you who may be used to reading this blog through the “Security Bloggers Network” set up originally by Alan Shimel, you need to be aware that the “SBN” is going through a transition. As Alan details on his blog, Google is in the process of shutting down the “Network” feature of Feedburner and as a result the page and feed for the SBN will be going away.

Alan is working on a new solution but in the meantime you may want to grab the OPML file for the Security Bloggers Network (you should then be able to import this into most feed readers). There are a lot of great security blogs out there.

Stay tuned for more information – once Alan has another solution in place I’ll post an update.

Three years of Blue Box podcasts….

Today is a special day for me. It was three years ago on October 24, 2005, that Blue Box Podcast #1 was uploaded. It was an 11-minute episode where I talked about… Skype security, SIP security, IETF, VOIPSA and some other VoIP security news….. (Hmmm… sounds lot like our recent shows, too, eh?)

Jonathan Zar joined me a week later on Blue Box Podcast #2 and we’ve been going ever since. We’ve now produced over 112 episodes, had close to 245,000 downloads of our various shows, met some amazing people, learned a lot along the way… and hopefully helped you all learn a lot out there as well.

Thank you to all of you who have joined with us on this journey… whether you’ve listened to our show from the very beginning (and we know of a couple of you who have) or have only recently joined in… thank you!

And now… on to the next three years… 🙂

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Blue Box #85: Internet phone calls and terrorism, Georgia Tech report on Emerging Cyber Security Threats, phone jamming, 802.1X-REV, 802.1AE, VoIP security news and more

Synopsis: Blue Box #85: Internet phone calls and terrorism, Georgia Tech report on Emerging Cyber Security Threats, phone jamming, 802.1X-REV, 802.1AE, VoIP security news and more


Welcome to Blue Box: The VoIP Security Podcast #85, a 32-minute podcast  from Dan York and Jonathan Zar covering VoIP security news, comments and opinions.   

Download the show here (MP3, 15 MB) or subscribe to the RSS feed to download the show automatically. 

You may also listen to this podcast right now:

Show Content:

Comments, suggestions and feedback are welcome either as replies to this post  or via e-mail to blueboxpodcast@gmail.com.  Audio comments sent as attached MP3 files are definitely welcome and will be played in future shows.  You may also call the listener comment line at either +1-415-830-5439 or via SIP to 'bluebox@voipuser.org' to leave a comment there. 

Thank you for listening and please do let us know what you think of the show.

Blue Box’s 3-year anniversary coming up on Friday…

It was three years ago Friday, on October 24, 2005, that I uploaded Blue Box Podcast #1, an 11-minute show where I introduced the show, talked about VoIP security news (To no surprise, I was talking about Skype security!), some projects of VOIPSA and some other podcasts people might find interesting. A week later, on Halloween 2005, Jonathan joined me in Blue Box Podcast #2 and we were off and running…

Three years later… 84 main Blue Box episodes (with one more recorded) …. 26 Special Editions (with about 10 in the queue)… almost 250,000 downloads… we’re still here and, with an admitted bit of a rough patch this summer, are still going along creating shows and enjoying what we do.

Jonathan and I are planning to record a 3-year show on this coming Friday, October 24th, and if you have any comments you would like us to include in that show, please do get them to us by the end of the day on Thursday, October 23rd. You can send them to us via:

The show started out 3 years ago as really an experiment in seeing whether or not podcasting could be used to reach out to very specific audiences… and it’s been both fun, amazing and interesting to see how well it’s done.

Thank you to all of you who have continued to listen and contribute over the years!

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Blue Box #84: New Cisco, Avaya, Nortel VoIP security vulnerabilities from VoIPShield, Skype in China, UCSniff and other new tools, news and more

Synopsis:  Blue Box #84: New Cisco, Avaya, Nortel VoIP security vulnerabilities
from VoIPShield, Skype in China, UCSniff and other new tools, news and
more


Welcome to Blue Box: The VoIP Security Podcast #84, a 30-minute podcast  from Dan York and Jonathan Zar covering VoIP security news, comments and opinions.   

Download the show here (MP3, MB) or subscribe to the RSS feed to download the show automatically. 

You may also listen to this podcast right now:

Show Content:

NOTE: Long-time listeners will note that the show notes above are in a less descriptive form than usual. After almost three years of using one wiki for preparing for our shows, Jonathan and I switched to using a new system and are still working out some of the details that will speed the input into show notes.

Comments, suggestions and feedback are welcome either as replies to this post  or via e-mail to blueboxpodcast@gmail.com.  Audio comments sent as attached MP3 files are definitely welcome and will be played in future shows.  You may also call the listener comment line at either +1-415-830-5439 or via SIP to ‘bluebox@voipuser.org‘ to leave a comment there. 

Thank you for listening and please do let us know what you think of the show.

Blue Box #83: SIP and Asterisk vulnerabilities, voice biometrics, P2PSIP, Aircell blocking Skype, VoIP security news and more…

Synopsis:  Blue Box #83: SIP and Asterisk vulnerabilities, voice biometrics, P2PSIP, Aircell blocking Skype, VoIP security news and more…


Welcome to Blue Box: The VoIP Security Podcast #83, a 39-minute podcast  from Dan York and Jonathan Zar covering VoIP security news, comments and opinions.   

Download the show here (MP3, 18MB) or subscribe to the RSS feed to download the show automatically. 

NOTE: This show was recorded on September 4, 2008.

You may also listen to this podcast right now:

Show Content:

Comments, suggestions and feedback are welcome either as replies to this post  or via e-mail to blueboxpodcast@gmail.com.  Audio comments sent as attached MP3 files are definitely welcome and will be played in future shows.  You may also call the listener comment line at either +1-415-830-5439 or via SIP to ‘bluebox@voipuser.org‘ to leave a comment there. 

Thank you for listening and please do let us know what you think of the show.