By Charlene O'Hanlon

Solution providers in the unified communications space now have an answer to customers lack of confidence regarding UC security.

Sipera Systems, a developer of technologies that securely enable unified communications including VoIP, instant messaging, video and collaboration, has achieved Common Criteria Certification for its UC-Sec security solution. Common Criteria is an international IT security certification standard recognized by 26 nations around the world and validates products and company processes through independent testing and evaluation. It is a requirement for many government agencies as well as enterprises looking for airtight security of their communications and data networks.

With the Common Criteria Certification, Siperas solution-provider partners now can target enterprises that before were not candidates for a complete unified communications solutio because of security concerns, such as government and financial companies. UC-Sec is certified for terminating SIP trunks on enterprise premises; extending UC applications to any device anywhere over any network; providing application-layer security for UC applications; and providing enterprise core network security, including VLAN separation, IP-PBX protection and compliance enforcement such as monitoring and recording, according to the company.

The Common Criteria Certification is extremely important for our resellers and in fact we worked in conjunction with a couple of our key resellers who requested that we achieve this certification,” said Adam Boone, director of marketing at Sipera Systems. For resellers who work in the government space, this is a fundamental requirement for a defense agency the Common Criteria Certification is just table stakes to get in the door.”

One reseller Sipera requesting the certification is a major multinational integrator and VAR targeting government agencies and the public sector in general. It saw tons of interest in unified communications but could never implement a full-scale UC solution because of security concerns,” Boone said.

Another partner is a major player in the telecom space, working particularly with SIP trunk providers. For them, any service provider that is able to claim Common Criteria is like a gold standard,” he said.

UC-Sec is the first solution that provides security for unified communications as a whole entity, Boone said. There are plenty of certified products for securing the elements of unified communications, such as firewalls. But ours is the first that applies security rules to all applications using converged UC network. And it is the first product for SIP trunking that is Common Criteria Certified, which is another real breakthrough,” he said.

The Common Criteria Certification now applies to Siperas UC-Sec appliances, which provide security for any UC applications using the SIP or Cisco SCCP protocol.