Wiretaps For VoIP

Wiretaps For VoIP:

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is expanding the reach of U.S. wiretapping laws to wireline broadband providers and Internet telephone companies.

In an order issued Friday, the FCC gave the providers 18 months to comply with the network wiretap accessibility rules of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).

This could be a big problem as wiretapping VoIP can be hard if the calls stay VoIP all the way through the network. As soon as they hit the normal telephone network (i.e. PSTN) it's covered by standard wiretap protocols.

How this is going to affect players like Skype who operate in the US is as yet unknown.

Since the FCC have gone this route, it's likely Ofcom will follow suite and the UK will adopt a similar regime.