 threat. Although the Y2K bug dominated the headlines, the most common software bug of the 1990s was a form of malicious code known as a buffer overflow, that hackers use to control targeted computers. In a buffer overflow, a perpetrator floods an address bar or some other field with more characters than it can accommodate, then activates the excess characters as executable code through means that firewalls may not be able to prevent. Demand for new software often results in sloppy computer programming and elimination of quality control steps that might have prevented such weaknesses. So what does this have to do with video communication? If it is video over IP networks, especially the Internet, a lot! In a November 1999 posting on SecurityPortal, Ronald L. Mendell reported on U.S. Army special agents who were showing their commanding officers how to remotely turn user-installed microphones and cameras on Microsoft Windows NT Workstations into remote spying devices. Doing SO allowed them to anonymously and remotely watch and listen to people who had no idea that they were being watched. This particular attack is initiated in the form of a Trojan horse (malicious software that carries executable code) concealed in an e-mail attachment. Opening the attachment installed a remote administration Information Security and Video Communications tool and ordered the Trojan horse to turn on the video and/or audio of the targeted machine. Victims of this type of comprimise may be oblivious of eavesdropping because many user-installed cameras and microphones lack much if any indication that they are in use. In short, videoconferences that occur across IP networks are vulnerable to information security breaches. In this section, we will ouline the basics of an information security posture. However, we will neither provide an exhaustive text nor a detailed technical explanation of how the related technologies work. We will provide some basic steps for developing information security strategies. INFORMATION SECURITY STRATEGY Fir