Melbourne Uni touts VoIP security application

The software, which was developed in the university's Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, is based on a PhD project by Dr Tao Peng and includes contributions from Dr Chris Leckie and Professor Rao Kotagiri from the university's Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering.

VoIP technology allows phone calls to be made over the Internet, often bypassing the traditional telephone network altogether. Although this means the calls are much cheaper to make, they are also less reliable.

Professor Kotagiri told ZDNet Australia on Monday that the new application is designed to monitor the behaviour of a VoIP system and recognise or block any unusual activity: "A lot of security systems are based on signatures and generally those methods don't work. Ours looks at the behaviour of the user."

"When the behaviours are outside the norm we can selectively block those IP packets and protect the system performance for the legitimate user," said Kotagiri.

The university has created a start-up firm called IntelliGuard IT to develop what was initially a research project into a commercial application.

Intelliguard's chief executive holds high hopes for the company: "Our approach to securing Internet services is unlike any security offering available today. This is truly a next generation security technology that has been realised through the collaboration of Melbourne University and IntelliGuard IT."

According to the university's commercialisation arm, Melbourne Ventures, IntelliGuard IT has already attracted more than AU$1.5 million in funding from Australian investment firms Uniseed and Starfish Ventures.