Re: [IP] Feds: VoIP a potential haven for terrorists

[Daniel Golding <dgolding@burtongroup.com>]

Dean,

An exchange point may be the hardest place to capture VoIP traffic.

For one thing, not too much VoIP traffic goes over exchange points today,
although that may change in the future. (with ENUM, etc)

Also, the era of public switch exchange points is long over (LINX and JPIX
are conspicuous exceptions) - most traffic is handled over OC-48 to OC-192
private peering links. These are concentrated in about a dozen locations
worldwide. Either way, tapping a 10 gig ethernet span port or putting on an
OC192 optical tap to a carrier peering router are technically difficult
solutions. Aside from the encryption, the sheer volume of traffic is huge.
The lack of ability to selectively filter at those speeds also complicates
things. Finally, you would need to tap without service interruption - pretty
tough if you are putting a tap on an OC-192 link between AT&T and MCI, for
example.

I suspect that the feds want to capture this stuff as close to the edge as
possible. It makes for a much more manageable problem.

As far as the encryption - well, government agencies have been buying lots
of CPU elements for various supercomputer clusters, both Intel CPUs and
Apple G5s. There's only a couple real uses for those - breaking encryption,
simulating bombs, etc. Of course, its all a matter of key length. With
processing delay, I'm guessing there is a practical limit to encryption key
length for VoIP without impacting quality?

- Dan


On 6/19/04 8:35 PM, "Dean Anderson" <dean@av8.com> wrote:

> "Haven" may not mean "bad thing". As long as the transmission is not
> encrypted the government can pick it up at an exchange point. Remember,
> the NSA is the agency that used to (still does??)  park satellites with
> big, sensitive antennas 20,000 miles or so off the end of a terrestial
> microwave link to tap soviet phone lines...  I suspect if the
> communication is encrypted, it also might not be that difficult for the
> NSA to handle, if its important.
> 
> Remember that it took only 5 minutes for the FBI to crack the encryption
> on files in Aldrich Ames palm pilot (remember the Soviet mole in the FBI).
> We don't know what encryption he used, but presumably, under the direction
> of the KGB, and trained by the FBI, it was respectable.  I've also read
> reports that the Feds have broken PGP messages sent by terrorists. PGP
> encrypts a Blowfish key with public key, and then encrypts the message in
> Blowfish or other algorithm (blowfish is default).
> 
> I suspect that the relevant agencies might not be prepared (or were not
> previously) to capture a lot of VOIP, but I suspect that once they are
> prepared with the right software, that it won't pose much of a problem.
> 
> And I think that as time goes on, encryption will pose less of a challenge
> to resourceful government agencies with approximately unlimited funds.
> 
> --Dean
> 
> On Fri, 18 Jun 2004, Daniel Golding wrote:
> 
>> 
>> Clearly, if we get VoIP peering working, the terrorists win. Or something
>> like that.
>> 
>> - Dan
>> 
>> On 6/18/04 9:31 AM, "Gregory Hicks" <ghicks@cadence.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> FYI...
>>> 
>>> ------------- Begin Forwarded Message -------------
>>> 
>>> To: Ip <ip@v2.listbox.com>
>>> From: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
>>> Subject: [IP] Feds: VoIP a potential haven for terrorists
>>> Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2004 09:10:19 -0400
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------
>>> This story was printed from ZDNN,
>>> located at http://www.zdnn.com.
>>> --------------------------------------------------------------
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Feds: VoIP a potential haven for terrorists
>>> By  Declan McCullagh
>>> CNET News.com
>>> June 16, 2004, 10:54 AM PT
>>> URL: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-5236233.html
>>> 
>>> WASHINGTON--The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday lashed out at
>>> Internet telephony, saying the fast-growing technology could foster
>>> "drug trafficking, organized crime and terrorism."
>>> 
>>> Laura Parsky, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice
>>> Department, told a Senate panel that law enforcement bodies are deeply
>>> worried about their ability to wiretap conversations that use voice
>>> over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services.
>>> 
>>> "I am here to underscore how very important it is that this type of
>>> telephone service not become a haven for criminals, terrorists and
>>> spies," Parsky said. "Access to telephone service, regardless of how it
>>> is transmitted, is a highly valuable law enforcement tool."
>>> 
>>> Police been able to conduct Internet wiretaps for at least a decade,
>>> and the FBI's controversial Carnivore (also called DCS1000) system was
>>> designed to facilitate online surveillance. But Parsky said that
>>> discerning "what the specific (VoIP) protocols are and how law
>>> enforcement can extract just the specific information" are difficult
>>> problems that could be solved by Congress requiring all VoIP providers
>>> to build in backdoors for police surveillance.
>>> 
>>> The Bush administration's request was met with some skepticism from
>>> members of the Senate Commerce committee, who suggested that it was too
>>> soon to impose such weighty regulations on the fledgling VoIP
>>> industry.  Such rules already apply to old-fashioned telephone
>>> networks, thanks to a 1994 law called the Communications Assistance for
>>> Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).
>>> 
>>> "What you need to do is convince us first on a bipartisan basis that
>>> there's a problem here," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. "I would like to
>>> hear specific examples of what you can't do now and where the law falls
>>> short. You're looking now for a remedy for a problem that has not been
>>> documented."
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Wednesday's hearing was the first to focus on a bill called the VoIP
>>> Regulatory Freedom Act, sponsored by Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H. It would
>>> ban state governments from regulating or taxing VoIP connections. It
>>> also says that VoIP companies that connect to the public telephone
>>> network may be required to follow CALEA rules, which would make it
>>> easier for agencies to wiretap such phone calls.
>>> 
>>> The Justice Department's objection to the bill is twofold: Its wording
>>> leaves too much discretion with the Federal Communications Commission,
>>> Parsky argued, and it does not impose wiretapping requirements on
>>> Internet-only VoIP networks that do not touch the existing phone
>>> network, such as Pulver.com's Free World Dialup.
>>> 
>>> "It is even more critical today than (when CALEA was enacted in 1994)
>>> that advances in communications technology not provide a haven for
>>> criminal activity and an undetectable means of death and destruction,"
>>> Parsky said.
>>> 
>>> Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., wondered if it was too early to order
>>> VoIP firms to be wiretap-friendly by extending CALEA's rules. "Are we
>>> premature in trying to tie all of this down?" he asked. "The technology
>>> shift is so rapid and so vast."
>>> 
>>> The Senate's action comes as the FCC considers a request submitted in
>>> March by the FBI. If the request is approved, all broadband Internet
>>> providers--including companies using cable and digital subscriber line
>>> technology--will be required to rewire their networks to support easy
>>> wiretapping by police.
>>> 
>>> Wednesday's hearing also touched on which regulations covering 911 and
>>> "universal service" should apply to VoIP providers. The Sununu bill
>>> would require the FCC to levy universal service fees on Internet phone
>>> calls, with the proceeds to be redirected to provide discounted analog
>>> phone service to low-income and rural American households.
>>> 
>>> One point of contention was whether states and counties could levy
>>> taxes on VoIP connections to support services such as 911 emergency
>>> calling. Because of that concern, "I would not support the bill as
>>> drafted and I hope we would not mark up legislation at this point,"
>>> said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.
>>> 
>>> Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., added: "The marketplace does not always
>>> provide for critical services such as emergency response, particularly
>>> in rural America. We must give Americans the peace of mind they
>>> deserve."
>>> 
>>> Some VoIP companies, however, have announced plans to support 911
>>> calling. In addition, Internet-based phone networks have the potential
>>> to offer far more useful information about people who make an emergency
>>> call than analog systems do.
>>> 
>>> <http://zdnet.com.com/2102-1105_2-5236233.html?tag=printthis>
>>> 
>>> -------------------------------------
>>> Archives at: 
>>> http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
>>> 
>>> ------------- End Forwarded Message -------------
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Gregory Hicks                           | Principal Systems Engineer
>>> Cadence Design Systems                  | Direct:   408.576.3609
>>> 555 River Oaks Pkwy M/S 6B1             | Fax:      408.894.3479
>>> San Jose, CA 95134                      | Internet: ghicks@cadence.com
>>> 
>>> I am perfectly capable of learning from my mistakes.  I will surely
>>> learn a great deal today.
>>> 
>>> "A democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding on what to have for
>>> lunch.  Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the results of the
>>> decision." - Benjamin Franklin
>>> 
>>> "The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they
>>> be properly armed." --Alexander Hamilton
>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
> 

-- 
Daniel Golding
Network and Telecommunications Strategies
Burton Group



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