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VoIP Becomes Less Secure from Wiretapping

August 14, 2005

According to my brother, GMA would have been better off using Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) when calling Commr. Garcillano because VoIP  calls can be encrypted and are therefore more secure.  Well, the Electronic Frontier Foundation reports that the Federal Communications Commission just issued rules expanding the scope of the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) to cover broadband Internet communications.  The CALEA is a US statute that directs telephone equipment manufacturers to make their hardware easy to tap.  Expanding the law to broadband Internet means, that even encrypted VoIP calls can be tapped into very easily (after they get a warrant, of course). 

So, what Joel said may no longer be true in the near future. As they say, the only thing standing between the government and your privacy is a judge.

UPDATE:  Wired reports that a legal challenge to the FCC rules is likely.

Posted by JJ Disini at 7:23 am | permalink

Previous Comments

It may be illuminating to explore this link:
http://news.com.com/2100-7348_3-5825932.html…
On the one hand the data seems to indicate some success in "tapping" otherwise secure VoIP conversations. On the other hand, if I can read through the journalists BS it seems the technique does alter the signals … thus making the surveillance theoretically detectable.

As the technology appears to exist, it may be possible, after proper development, that law enforcement would then have an ability approximately as they have today, (without court order, in the US) to collect the equivalent of individual call records … who called whom and when, but no ability to monitor the words of the conversation is claimed or implied.

A very interesting field of study, both for the technically and the legally inclined.

Best regards
Dave

Posted by Dave Starr at August 15, 2005, 11:25 pm

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