The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is moving to expand existing wiretapping guidelines to broadband and voice-over-Internet (VOIP) providers. The existing regulations based on the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), currently cover conventional phone lines, only. The move is being opposed by both civil libertarians and a host of technology companies and industry associations.
Many of the technology companies' fears can be summed up in this statement from Susan Landau, engineer and security specialist at Sun Microsystems: "What applying CALEA to VOIP means is not that law enforcement can do wiretaps under legal authorization, but that government officials have the right to design the standards for wiretapping...That means they're in the Internet protocols. It doesn't matter whether you use the publicly switched Internet or private networks that use the Internet protocols -- you've introduced a vulnerability."
These introduced "vulnerabilities" may indeed make it easier for hackers or terrorists to exploit or bring down networks.
Where do you stand? Are there better ways to enforce CALEA?
Surveillance
