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FCC Affirms VoIP Must Allow Snooping

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the big-brother-is-listening dept.

MarsGov writes "The FCC released an order yesterday that requires all broadband providers and all "interconnected" VoIP providers to implement CALEA — in other words, law enforcement can snoop on your online conversations, both voice and text. While this is no surprise, it makes encryption for VoIP even more urgent."

11 of 301 comments (clear)

  1. No surprise at all by slusich · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No surprise here at all.
    The goverment isn't even willing to get proper warrants to tap regular phone and internet service. VOIP won't be any different.
    Look for encryption to be made illeagal for all phone and IP services in the very near future.
    This is just another step in the war on the constitution.

    --

    DeviantArt Page

    NSFW
    1. Re:No surprise at all by ZSpade · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yet they've been doing this for years. Nothing has really changed. Could you encrypt your old land line telephone? Can you encrypt your cellphone calls? For the most part no. The government has been doing this for years, why should things change now.

      Just don't say they're getting worse without really looking at our past. Nothing has gotten worse, only the means to which our "rights" are negated as changed.

      --
      Go ahead and call me unreliable; reliable is just a synonym for predictable.
    2. Re:No surprise at all by solus1232 · · Score: 5, Insightful
      I think you are giving criminals too much credit.

      Joe sixpack might not be smart enough to commnicate over a secure channel, or simply not communicate over a possibly compromised channel at all (prepaid cell phones anyone?), but why do you think the average criminal would be?

      You make it sound like a disproportionate number of law abiding citizens will be affected by this order because real criminals will be smart enough to use encryption. The majority of criminal actions are motivated by a combination of desperation and lack of common sense and thus the average criminal will be less likely to use an anonymous form of communication than the average citizen.



    3. Re:No surprise at all by TheLetterPsy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's doubly bad

      You misspelled doubleplusungood.

  2. Encryption? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If they are this forceful in there attempts to spy on citizens, than how long do you think we can use encryption before they ban it (or at least mandate a government backdoor)?

  3. User encryption raises even more flags by BadassJesus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    it makes encryption for VoIP even more urgent

    Big players like Skype or Google Talk will have to implement weak (gov breakable) cypher. And if you opt to use it you will automatically be in focus.

  4. Action Time! by autocracy · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I've read so many things about our government as a whole's actions this year, and I'm really distraught. I walked into my Senator's office today, and discussed meeting with her. Usually, she only takes groups. I assume the same applies for most other Senators and Reps. Letters get ignored, e-mails are only seen by staff... who knows what happens to faxes?

    My answer? A call to the /. community to organize in each Congressional district. Anybody who wants to assist in putting together these groups, please e-mail me. techroots@storyinmemo.com. If 15 of us in Southern Maine get together, we'll get a meeting. If we, as an organization, speak, we'll be much louder. Anybody, and particularly anybody in Southern Maine, I really want to hear from you. In a world that organizes online, if we can speak in real life too, we as geeks may be the most efficient people to form together.

    Let's see if we can't stand a chance in hell of not being oppressed by the government we as a country vote for.

    --
    SIG: HUP
  5. why is this a big deal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Are slashdot readers all using encryption on their existing telephone lines? If not, why does it matter now that it's VOIP?

  6. How would this work? by jamesh · · Score: 5, Informative

    Properly implemented, SIP (common VoIP protocol) works like this:
    A='A Party' - the person making the call
    B='B Party' - the person receiving the call
    P='Proxy' - the VoIP provider

    A and B register with P.
    A makes a call to B:
    . A requests P that it be put through to B
    . P contacts B, B's phone rings
    . B answers
    . P lets A know B's details
    . P lets B know A's details
    . A and B exchange voice traffic directly, without involving P

    This allows latency to remain low when, say, A and B are in Australia and P is on the other side of the world.

    To perform a successful wire tap in this scenario, the FCC would need to intercept the data at multiple points, possibly in separate countries.

    Alternatively, P can tell A and B that there is too much firewalling in place and that all voice traffic must go via P, but by doing this they are giving the game away... it would be easily detectable by A and or B if they were smart enough to know what was going on.

  7. Compatibility mode by FLEB · · Score: 5, Funny

    The only road-block is that the other person you're talking to has to have the same setup. For 99% of people, it isn't worth the cost. For businesses & gov't agencies, it certainly is.

    (Ring-ring...)
    (Ring-ring...)
    (Recorded voice) "This is an encrypted telephone call. It appears you do not have a compatible decryption device. Please have a pencil and paper ready, and follow along as I read you some simple instructions. First, write a list of 256 random numbers from 1 to 16. When you have completed this step, press pound."

    (scribble-scribble-scribble... bleep.)

    (Recorded voice) Now, divide the first number by... six, noting the remainder.
    Divide the second number by... twelve, noting the remainder.
    Divide the third number by... eight, noting the...

    --
    Information wants to be free.
    Entertainment wants to be paid.
    You just want to be cheap.
  8. Use IP to IP Dialing To Bypass VOIP Backdoors by Junior+Samples · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I regularly use VOIP via Free World Dialup (FWD). This system uses the SIP protocol. FWD servers seem to have frequent outages. To get around this problem, I've found that I can use direct IP to IP dialing and bypass FWD's servers completely. IP dialing is cumbersome, but you can put the dialed addresses in a speed call list and use 2-digit dialing. This works very well. There's a side benefit of no call logging since the provider's server is being bypassed. In theory I can call any SIP phone that's connected to the internet whether they're on Vonage, Packet Eight, or any other network, if I know their IP address.

    Right now there are about a half dozen members of our private network. We're all registered with dyndns.org to solve the problem of dynamic addressing. We're all using Sipura Network adapters to connect a regular telephone to the Internet. The Sipura adapters accommodate dialing by hostname or IP address. The latency is lower with direct IP dialing because the voice packets are not routed through FWD's STUN or NAT servers.

    This method is more secure since you're not dependent on any VOIP provider. The back doors that they provide for government spying can be bypassed. Encryption would be difficult but not impossible because it would have to be implemented in the Sipura firmware. SIP software phones will also work with direct IP dialing.