Vendors sync up IP wiretapping tools

Two software vendors have made their IP wiretapping tools for carriers and law-enforcement agencies work together.

Narus' NarusInsight Intercept Suite for carriers has been fully tested for interoperability with Pen-Link's Lincoln 2 data collection and reporting software for law enforcement, the companies will announce Tuesday.

The transition on carrier networks from circuit-switched phone calls to IP packet data services has turned the world of wiretapping upside down. With new laws requiring carriers to hand over information about subscribers' e-mail and Web surfing, carriers and legal agencies need new tools that work with each other.

In August 2004, the FCC ruled that interconnected VoIP service providers will have to allow law enforcement wiretapping under Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) by May 14, 2007. A federal court upheld that ruling on Friday.

A set of rules from the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) that cover interception and analysis of e-mail and other IP communications is now being phased in across Europe and adopted in some Asian countries, according to Steve Bannerman, vice president of Marketing at Narus. ETSI doesn't yet have a law on VoIP wiretapping, he said.

The software a carrier uses to intercept communications has to match up with the tools used by the law-enforcement agency that wants to collect and interpret the data, Bannerman said.

The Narus and Pen-Link products are the first to comply with both the ETSI rules and the VoIP CALEA regulations as well as U.S. laws on collecting e-mail and Web data, the companies claim. Specifically, they fully comply with the CALEA T1.678 standard and the ETSI TS 102 232/233/234 standards.

The software is intended for probes, with warrants, of specific users' traffic during specific periods, Bannerman said.

While service providers and law enforcement work out how to implement the new breed of lawful intercept, enterprises and other users are just beginning to face the questions it raises, according to Stacey Quandt, an analyst at Aberdeen Group, in Boston.

"There is still a cloud of uncertainty as to what information is being accessed and how it is being used by government agencies," Quandt said.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.