VOIP & Broadband has wiretap requirement FCC

[rumpel]

changed title.
Did we discuss this last fall?

I was listening to a senator from Tennessee(R) a short while ago complaining about bush not putting any money into the budget. Universities having to comply with the wiretap system needing to increase over $400 per student on tuition to cover the cost.

http://www.itworld.com/Net/3303/051025fcc/

Groups challenge FCC's VOIP wiretapping rules
IDG News Service 10/25/05

Grant Gross, IDG News Service, Washington Bureau
A group of privacy advocates and technology companies on Tuesday filed court papers to challenge a ruling by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), saying it overstepped its authority by requiring VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) providers to allow wiretapping by law enforcement agencies.

The groups, including advocacy groups the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), argued that an FCC's ruling on VOIP could introduce security vulnerabilities into VOIP services, could drive up costs for customers, and could open up additional Internet applications, such as instant messaging, to wiretap rules.

The August 2004 FCC ruling requires VOIP providers, by early 2007, to build in technology that complies with a 1994 telephone wiretapping law called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). But adding such functionality to VOIP could introduce security holes by increasing the complexity of the code, and it could open up vulnerabilities to sophisticated hackers, said Susan Landau, a distinguished engineer at Sun Microsystems Inc.

"What the FCC rule does is say, 'Build surveillance technology into Internet Protocol,'" she said. "We feel that's very dangerous and weakens national security rather than strengthens it."

I am going to check on what happened to the suit, and will amend the post.

[rumpel]

1. Background

http://www.mondaq.com/i_article.asp_Q_articleid_E_37246
United States: Communications Article: Application of CALEA to Cable Operators: Current Issues and Status of FCC Rulemaking

18 January 2006
Article by Chérie R. Kiser * & Ernest C. Cooper **

Originally published 15 December 2005

Cable operators that provide broadband Internet services or voice over Internet protocol ("VoIP") services to their subscribers are required by a recent Federal Communications Commission ("FCC" or "Commission") to comply with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act ("CALEA"), which compels carriers to provide assistance to law enforcement authorities to obtain access to communications that may be part of an ongoing investigation. Assistance is required in the forms of both cooperation and system capability. The FCC’s application of CALEA to broadband Internet services is being challenged in federal court. Even if CALEA applicability to broadband is upheld, there are a number of questions and issues about application of CALEA that remain to be resolved by the FCC and the industry.

snip

FCC Order Declares CALEA Applicable to VoIP and Broadband

On August 5, 2005, the FCC adopted an order concluding that CALEA applies to "facilities-based broadband Internet access providers and providers of interconnected service."16 Providers of these types of services were given eighteen months to come into compliance with CALEA provisions.17 Rather than issuing orders responding to all of the issues raised in the CALEA Broadband NPRM, the CALEA Broadband Order was purposefully limited to establishing that CALEA applied to these specific services.18

snip

Federal Court Challenge to Order

Almost immediately, the Order was challenged in federal court as being arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law. The two cases filed in the District of Columbia Circuit, now consolidated, are pending.28 Petitioners included Comptel, Sun Microsystems, Pulver.com, the American Library Association, the American Council on Education ("ACE"), the Center for Democracy and Technology ("CDT") and the Electronic Frontier Foundation ("EFF"). An ACE spokesperson expressed concern about the estimated $7billion costs of implementation for the nation’s colleges and universities, saying the ACE "hope to convince the FCC that colleges and universities can provide the same access through alternative approaches."29 The EFF raised security concerns: "Many of the technologies currently used to create wiretap-friendly computer networks make the people on those networks more pregnable to attackers who want to steal their data or personal information."30

and again
from previous article
http://www.itworld.com/Net/3303/051025fcc/

The American Council on Education filed its own challenge to the VOIP CALEA rules Monday. The CDT's challenges comes a day after the Washington Post reported that the FBI has looked into hundreds of rules violations in cases involving its surveillance of U.S. residents.

Gonzales was asked whether he knows of any abuse investigations pertaining to the NSA. He better come up voluntarily with this one, too.