Mechanics of CALEA taps

Mon Jun 10 00:43:00 UTC 2013

(from back when I cared more about calea as an implementor)

On Sun, Jun 9, 2013 at 8:15 PM, Alex Rubenstein <alex at corp.nac.net> wrote:
>> Honestly, I expect replies to this question to range between zero and none,
>> but I have to ask it.
>
> Surprise!

<aol>me too!</aol>

>
>> I understand the CALEA tap mechanism for most ISPs, generally, works like
>> this:
>>
>>  * we outsource our CALEA management to company X
>>  * we don't even know there's been a request until we've gotten a bill from X.
>
> I've never even thought of the idea of outsourcing CALEA requests. That is probably because I would never consider doing it.
>
> Perhaps we are in the minority, but we scrutinize every request of any sort to ensure it has jurisdiction and is valid. I can't even fathom the thought of trusting a third party for this.
>

agreed, since most of the tap-work actually requires changes on
network equipment in the network you run, why would you outsource
this? Especially when the taps impact forwarding performance of the
platforms in question...