Snooping on VOIP

EvilAlien writes "SecurityFocus is running an article on a joint Justice Department and FBI filing to the FCC which asks for broader communications interception powers: FBI seeks Internet telephony surveillance. The move is very similar to the Lawful Access Consultation launched by the Canadian Government in August 2002. Both initatives discuss technological challenges and fears of communication "safe havens" for criminals on broadband services such as Internet, VoIP, and wireless services. Holes in existing legislation, such as Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), can provide unintended exclusions for services such as Free World Dialup."

Comments

What would they do if..

[3.5 stripes]

people used ssh to tunnel their calls (assuming it's possible), or made calls over VPNs?

Re:Encryption?

[Max Romantschuk]

What's the encryption like on VOIP? Would something like PGP be possible?

In theory, the following applies... in practice I have no idea :)

Since VOIP is transferred in IP packets and packets can be encrypted encryption should be possible.

Since PGP is public key encryption and this is fairly standard there shouldn't be any problems there either.

The real issue is that whatever the solution it has to be part of the standard... otherwise it's pretty meaningless, unless your dodgy friend also has a custom encryption solution, and then I guess one could tunnel VOIP through an SSH tunnel just as well.

I suspect that VOIP technologies have incorporated encryption, but I'm not educated on the subject. Would someone care to fill in?