US Gov trying to tap VOIP calls
In another move to snoop on the world, the US Gov is trying to implement VOIP Wiretaps, according to the ITAA. In a ruling last year the FCC stated that the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement [CALEA] act , which is a provision [at least in the USA] requiring telephone companies to build wiretapping facilities in their network infrastructure, also extends to VOIP offerings. To achieve their goal, it appears that the implementation would introduce severe security risks, [see section 5 pg 11].
Aside from the security concerns this raises, it also seems highly improbable to implement in any realistic manner except in very limited intances, due to the decentralized nature of the Internet, unlike conventional PSTN...At least in the United States the majority of VOIP services are through either your ISP like Verizon and Comcast and/or a 3rd party like Vonnage.
These types of VOIP services are integrated into the PSTN [public switched telephone network] much more tightly than other VOIP services and are tied to accounts with subscriber information such as billing name, address and IP addresses allocated.With proliferation of independent VOIP/SIP providers, there realy is no way to track these end users, let alone provide wiretapping to record calls, unless the tactics [and risks] mentioned in the ITAA paper are implemented.
