Network intrusions and denial of service attacks against Telstra have increased 1500 percent in the last few years, according to Ted Pretty, Telstra's managing director of technology and innovation.

Outlining the benefits of Internet Protocol Virtual Private Networks (IPVPN) last week, he said the use of such technology will increase, but so will network attacks.

"We are faced with the reality that there will be, increasingly, denial-of-service attacks and intrusions into each of our networks," he said.

"We have seen in our business something like a 1500 per cent increase in the nature of those sort of attacks in the last few years.

"We actually turn away something like 600,000 files a day which we believe have some form of virus or infection."

Speaking at a US Chamber of Commerce event, Pretty said doing business over the telephone will be a thing of the past as IPVPN's become more widespread.

"There are many companies that provide this, including Telstra, and I suggest that this is where a lot of our business is going to shift over the next few years as voice ceases to be carried over the plain old telephone service," Pretty said.

The next step in the technology is to use it in a way to change business processes, such as employing video capability for remote diagnostics.

Companies will be able to transmit pictures of equipment such as valves or pumps, or monitor electricity meters in factories or homes in real time and reduce the need to have people physically "on the ground" all the time.

However, one of the challenges with IPVPN, he said, is that transmitting data and voice over the air is not as reliable as transfer over cable.

- With AAP