SPIT Identification Criteria Implementation: Effectiveness and Lessons Learned

Abstract

While VoIP enables new means for communication, it may also provide a new way of transmitting bulk unsolicited messages and calls, namely SPam over Internet Telephony (SPIT). In this paper, we present the phases of a SPIT management process and we form a set of SPIT identification criteria, which are needed in order to characterize a call as SPIT, or a caller as spitter. Then, we present briefly the currently existing anti-SPIT frameworks, so as to examine which of the SPIT identification criteria is fulfilled by each framework, thus providing an insight on which criteria a technique should cope with, as well as how one can evaluate and combine existing approaches, in order to effectively mitigate SPIT. Finally, we implement a list of the criteria in our lab environment in order to examine the applicability of these controls in a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) environment.