FCC Issues Rule Allowing FBI to Dictate Wiretap-Friendly Design for In ternet Services

["Fergie (Paul Ferguson)" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

Via the EFF website.

[snip]

Today the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a release  announcing its new rule expanding the reach of the 
Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). The ruling is a reinterpretation of the scope of CALEA and 
will force Internet broadband providers and certain voice-over-IP (VoIP) providers to build backdoors into their 
networks that make it easier for law enforcement to wiretap them. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has argued 
against this expansion of CALEA in several rounds of comments to the FCC on its proposed rule.

CALEA, a law passed in the early 1990s, mandated that all telephone providers build tappability into their networks, 
but expressly ruled out information services like broadband. Under the new ruling from the FCC, this tappability now 
extends to Internet broadband providers as well.

Practically, what this means is that the government will be asking broadband providers - as well as companies that 
manufacture devices used for broadband communications – to build insecure backdoors into their networks, imperiling the 
privacy and security of citizens on the Internet. It also hobbles technical innovation by forcing companies involved in 
broadband to redesign their products to meet government requirements.

"Expanding CALEA to the Internet is contrary to the statute and is a fundamentally flawed public policy," said Kurt 
Opsahl, EFF staff attorney. "This misguided tech mandate endangers the privacy of innocent people, stifles innovation 
and risks the functionality of the Internet as a forum for free and open expression."

[snip]

http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_08.php#003876

- ferg


--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg () netzero net or fergdawg () sbcglobal net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/