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

Mon Aug 8 13:51:03 UTC 2005

Christopher L. Morrow wrote:

> shiny side out one hopes? Seriously though, I'm not a telco/phone person,
> but I was once told that the phone switch equipment does the tap
> 'automagically' to special ds-1 facilities inn LEA-land... which means the
> cell phone can be wrapped in anything you'd like. If the calls get
> completed a copy is silently made to the right folks (not the nsa, they
> aren't LEA).

At least from the experiences I've indirectly gained, if the call 
terminates on a switch with tap gear, it's similar to a SPAN port.  Not 
only does the recipient's phone ring, but the magic phone rings and 
outputs the information from both sides of the call, while inputting 
nothing.  The federal folks spent big money to have the switch 
manufacturers implement the software functionality, but the telcos do 
have to acquire the equipment (or rights to it via contract).  It was 
funny watching Siemens try to tell our employee (former Siemens 
employee, and experienced in CALEA) that we'd have to buy the 
feature...it was less than an hour before they were calling back asking 
to be able to add the feature.  :)

pt