VOIP Phones: Used During the 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attack

What they used it for:

"Phoning home" and getting orders from their handlers.

How it works:

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony has been around since the first days of the Internet, and it's simple enough too — it uses your Internet connection to transmit voice between people. The problem with the Internet, however, is that it's a packet- switched network, which means that packets of data don't reach their destination in the right sequence. With voice, of course, this will not do at all which is why several technologies had to be developed to ensure that voice travelled the pipes without any problems. Skype, for instance, uses its own proprietary technology to make sure that voice reaches you fast and clearly.

Why it's "evil":

Several governments, including India, already hate VoIP for robbing the telecom sector of all the money they could make on international calls. But that's hardly the point. The real problem with VoIP is that it is considerably more secure than cell phones. Calls made from VoIP phones can only be traced to the point where they get converted from regular voice data to Internet data. Once the data enters the Internet, it bounces around servers across the globe before it reaches its destination. Worse, even if you find out which to, determining its position can be a pain. The recipient of a call could have a New York phone number, but could still be in the room next to the caller, which is why terrorists seem to love it. For a few years now, the FBI has been issuing warnings that militants have been using VoIP for their activities, and a report in October last year highlighted that the Taliban was using Skype to keep in touch. The problem? To ensure that your voice calls aren't overheard, VoIP providers build secure, proprietary technologies that make it very difficult for hackers to eavesdrop on your calls. Naturally, it also becomes difficult for the law to tap these calls.

Fighting it: