Feds step up push to wiretap VoIP calls

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CALEA for VoIP

Don't get too carried away by the sketch reporting or knee-jerk reaction to DoJ being involved. CALEA is a very important tool in the war on terror. AL Quida has very sophisticated hacking capabilites--U.S. trained Ph.D. computer scientists who are just as saavy about getting in to our sensitive systems as our best defenders are at keeping them out.

CALEA is NOT tapping. It requires a carrier handling voice or data traffic of a party against whom a proper warrant is issued (just like a court-issued warrant to search your premisis if the cops convince the judge that you are the proper target of an investigation) to make traffic ID ("pen register" data in the copper world) informtion available (time and number calleed to/from, duration). That has been in place for the POTS for over a year. VeriSign tool called NetDiscovery lets carriers transfer the data to law enforcement through a secure channel. An entirely different warrant is required to actually record the content of traffic. The CALEA statute does not precisely distinguish the network over which the traffic is carried, so,with the advent of VoIP, the natural desire of Law Enforcement is to have the same tool for VoIP they have for POTS traffic. The debates at the FCC will be at 2 levels. First--should VoIP and other Information Services generally be subject to regulation under Title II of the Communciations Act (the BIG, harder issue--because it really means, should the long UNREGULATED Internet become regulated because it is fast serving the same public interest, convenience and necessity functions that POTS has). Second issue--looking at VoIP narrowly, do the CALEA rules apply to it, (whether or not you give the FCC braod authority to regulate the Internet)This is the easier question, and I think it will quickly be resolved in favor of "letting carriers agree" (make rules that will direct carriers they must) HAVE CALEA obligations for VoIP traffic, and letting them meet those obligations by deploying the IP-capable version of VeriSign's NetDiscovery to do so.

Posted by: Michael from VA   Posted on: 02/11/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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