[Asterisk-Users] Legal Interception - tapping

[Andrew Joakimsen]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-users-admin at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-
> admin at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of John Todd
> Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2003 4:33 PM
> To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
> Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Legal Interception - tapping
> 
> At 3:06 PM -0500 9/11/03, Steven Critchfield wrote:
> >On Thu, 2003-09-11 at 14:05, Dan Tusa wrote:
> >>  Hi,
> >>
> >>  Companies that offer telephone service to the public are obliged
to
> offer
> >>  tapping to all kind of authorities.
> >>
> >>  Does anyone know how to tap in Asterisk? I.e. record (or copy) a
> >>  conversation based upon their telephone number?
> >
> >Wouldn't this be possible for your provider to do for you? It would
seem
> >that you would be buying service from some larger telecom and they
> >already have to meet those functions. So wouldn't it be possible to
> >shift it to them, especially if all your traffic for any specific
> >customer always crossed a specific telecom?
> >--
> >Steven Critchfield  <critch at basesys.com>
> 
> Consider this case, though:
> 
> CLEC-R-Us, Inc. has a class 5 switch, and provides local and LD
> service to customers.  They comply with all relevant laws regarding
> CALEA and recording on their switch system.
> 
> CLEC-R-Us also offers DSL services and Internet access.  CLEC-R-Us
> offers a "special" rate when your business gets service and you also
> buy service for all your employees in the same region: free calling
> between employees and the business, and even free inbound calls from
> the outside world to each of those locations, all using VoIP.
> CLEC-R-Us uses Asterisk to terminate a PRI from their switch for
> inbound/outbound calls.
> 
> So far so good... almost.  The CALEA requirements can be handled
> (probably) for inbound calls from the PSTN by existing methods.  BUT:
> What happens when the FBI comes in and asks for recordings of calls
> between Customer A (VoIP) and Customer C (VoIP) which aren't touching
> the Class 5 switch at all, because they're looped between each other
> through Asterisk or (worse yet!) the RTP data doesn't even go through
> CLEC-R-Us at all?  Whoops.  Suddenly, CLEC-R-Us is out of compliance,
> and Mr. FBI-Guy is doing a lot of frowning and mentioning words like
> "FCC" and "injunction" on the cell phone to his legal department.

And that is the whole issue regarding VoIP. How are Customer A and
Customer C connecting to each other? If they decided to setup their own
Asterisk servers to talk with each other, CLEC-R-Us would not be
involved. But if they are going through CLEC-R-Us then there would be an
issue. If they are using Asterisk is it not possible to record calls
automatically. I have not reviews the CALEA requirements, must access be
provided in realtime, or would recording suffice?