FC: MetaSwitch embeds police spy features in new Net-phone switch

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Fri Apr 11 2003 - 11:27:29 PDT

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    Here's some background on CALEA, aka Digital Telephony, aka the
    Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act:
    http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=calea
    
    Two interesting posts (from Barry and John, four years ago):
    http://www.politechbot.com/p-00656.html
    http://www.politechbot.com/p-00653.html
    
    One section of CALEA, for example, says a "telecommunications carrier
    shall ensure that its equipment, facilities, or services that provide
    a customer or subscriber [to communicate] are capable of...
    expeditiously isolating and enabling the government... to intercept...
    all wire and electronic communications..."
    http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/calea/calea_law.html
    
    -Declan
    
    ---
    
    http://www.metaswitch.com/news/calea.htm
       
    Press Release: MetaSwitch VP3500 Completes CALEA Review with FBI
    
    Next Generation Class 5 Switch vendor offers on-board solution for service
    providers
    
       Alameda, CA: April 10, 2003. MetaSwitch, supplier of the VP3500, the
       industry's first true Next Generation Class 5 Switch, announced today
       that it has completed an extensive review with the FBI, which
       demonstrates that the MetaSwitch CALEA specification meets the
       J-STD-025A standard for circuit switching equipment.
       
       CALEA, the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, requires
       that U.S. carriers provide Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) with the
       continued ability to perform electronic surveillance with existing and
       new telecommunications switching equipment. Electronic surveillance
       consists of either the interception of call content (commonly referred
       to as wiretaps) and/or the interception of call-identifying
       information (commonly referred to as dialed-number extraction).
       
       "We simplified providing CALEA compliance for our customers by
       incorporating CALEA functionality on-board the MetaSwitch VP3500
       rather than requiring additional external equipment", said John Lazar,
       Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "We are ensuring the
       completeness of our solution with ongoing testing with the FBI."
       
       In light of the current uncertainty in world events, electronic
       surveillance is becoming increasingly important as a tool for law
       enforcement agencies. Therefore it is vital that vendors and
       telecommunications carriers develop and deploy solutions that support
       electronic surveillance, in both traditional TDM and next generation
       packet-based networks.
       
       Technical requirements or standards for CALEA capabilities have been
       established for several categories of telecommunications by industry
       associations or standard-setting organizations, in consultation with
       representatives of the law enforcement community. The
       Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and Committee T1,
       standards organizations, are currently working on a further revision,
       J-STD-025B to cover packet based networks.
       
       About MetaSwitch
       
       MetaSwitch, a division of Data Connection, is the result of 21 years
       of experience supplying leading-edge technology to the
       telecommunications industry. Data Connection's track record of
       consistent profitability ensures long-term commitment to product
       development and customer support. The MetaSwitch VP3500 Next
       Generation Class 5 Switch offers service providers an immediate
       solution for broadband (VoIP and/or VoATM) and POTS service and a
       future-proof "softswitch" architecture for enhanced applications.
       
       MetaSwitch has offices in Alameda, CA, Dallas, TX, and Reston, VA in
       the US, and London, Chester and Edinburgh in the UK.
       
       For more information, see www.metaswitch.com.
       
       Contact:
       Carol Daniels
       MetaSwitch
       510 748 8230
       chdat_private
       
       Data Connection and MetaSwitch are trademarks of Data Connection
       Limited and Data Connection Corporation. Brands and products
       referenced herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their
       respective holders.
    
    
    
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