Does Wiretapping Require Cell Company Cooperation?

Posted by timothy on Tuesday April 26, 2011 @12:04PM from the plumb-the-depths-of-your-cynicism dept.

decora writes "Recently the dictator of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, accidentally admitted to wiretapping journalist Irina Khalip. Khalip is the wife of Andrei Sannikov, one of the many opposition presidential candidates who was imprisoned after the election in 2010. I am wondering how Lukashenko did this? Can a government tap a modern cellphone system without the company knowing? Or would it require cooperation, like when AT&T and others helped the NSA perform warrantless wiretapping on Americans?"

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Re:Kinda by sortius_nod · 2011-04-26 15:29 · Score: 4, Informative

Why is this even a question for slashdot. A quick google will inform you that Belrus has a state owned telco.
Nuff said. They own the telco, they'd have access to all traffic across it.