CALEA

Sat May 28 03:37:51 UTC 2016

I can say via firsthand knowledge that CALEA requests are definitely
happening and are not even that rare, proportional to a reasonably sized
subscriber-base.  It would be unlawful for me to comment specifically on
any actual CALEA requests, however.  But if you have general questions
about my observations, feel free to reach out directly.

-MJ

On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 11:28 AM, Brian Mengel <bmengel at gmail.com> wrote:

> My comments were strictly limited to my understanding of CALEA as it
> applied to ISPs, not telcos.  A request for a lawful intercept can entail
> mirroring a real time stream of all data sent to/from a customer's Internet
> connection (cable modem/DSL/dedicated Ethernet) to a LEA.  AFAIK this
> requires mediation before being sent to the LEA and it is the mediation
> server itself that initiates the intercept when so configured by the ISP.
> Perhaps some LEAs have undertaken the mediation function so as to
> facilitate these intercepts where the neither the ISP nor a third party can
> do so.  If that were the case then very little would be needed on the part
> of the ISP in order to comply with a request for lawful intercept.  I can
> say with certainty that these types of requests are being made of broadband
> ISPs though I agree that they are very rare.
>
> On Wed, May 11, 2016 at 2:58 PM, Ricky Beam <jfbeam at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Tue, 10 May 2016 17:00:54 -0400, Brian Mengel <bmengel at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > AFAIK being able to do a lawful intercept on a specific, named,
> >> individual's service has been a requirement for providers since 2007.
> >>
> >
> > It's been required for longer than that. The telco I worked for over a
> > decade ago didn't build the infrastructure until the FCC said they were
> > going to stop funding upgrades. That really got 'em movin'. (suddenly
> "data
> > services" people -- i.e. ME -- weren't redheaded stepchildren.)
> >
> > have never heard of a provider, big or small, being called out for being
> >> unable to provide this service when requested.
> >>
> >
> > Where existing infrastructure is not already in place (read:
> T1/BRI/etc.),
> > the telco can take up to 60 days to get that setup. I know more than one
> > telco that used that grace period to actually setup CALEA in the first
> > place.
> >
> > did not perform intercepts routinely.
> >>
> >
> > The historic published figures (i've not looked in years) suggest CALEA
> > requests are statistically rare. The NC based telco I worked for had
> never
> > received an order in the then ~40yr life of the company.
> >
> > The mediation server needed to "mediate" between your customer
> aggregation
> >> box and the LEA is not inexpensive.
> >>
> >
> > And also is not the telco's problem. Mediation is done by the LEA or 3rd
> > party under contract to any number of agencies. For example, a telco tap
> > order would mirror the control and voice traffic of a POTS line (T1/PRI
> > channel, etc.) into a BRI or specific T1 channel. (dialup was later
> added,
> > but wasn't required in my era, so we didn't support it.) We used to test
> > that by tapping a tech's phone. Not having any mediation software, all I
> > could do is "yeap, it's sending data" and listen to the voice channels
> on a
> > t-berd.
> >
> > --Ricky
> >
>
>