Wikileaks Publishes FBI VoIP Surveillance Docs

An anonymous reader writes "The folks on wikileaks have published a new interesting and shocking report: FBI Electronic Surveillance Needs for Carrier-Grade Voice over Packet (CGVoP) Service. The 88 paged document, which is part of the CALEA Implementation Plan was published in January 2003 and describes in detail all needs for surveillance of phone calls made via data services like the internet. Wikileaks has not published any analysis yet, so maybe some of the techies hanging around this end of the internet are interested in taking that one on."

PGPfone, where are you?

We desperately need a personal Internet telephony program that has full support for encryption. PGPfone was left unmaintained a decade ago, and Ekiga won't have encryption support until version 3.0. It's like there's a conspiracy to leave the public without such a basic tool.

Re:PGPfone, where are you?

Twinkle [twinklephone.com]?
It handles encryption using ZRTP [wikipedia.org]/SRTP [wikipedia.org] and can do point-to-point (IP2IP) calls like good'ole Speak Freely.

Re:PGPfone, where are you?

It was replaced by zphone http://www.zfoneproject.com/ [zfoneproject.com] alive and kicking and better.

Q: What is Zfone?

A: Zfone is my new secure VoIP phone software which lets you make secure encrypted phone calls over the Internet. The ZRTP protocol used by Zfone will soon be integrated into many standalone secure VoIP clients, but today we have a software product that lets you turn your existing VoIP client into a secure phone. The current Zfone software runs in the Internet protocol stack on any Windows XP, Mac OS X, or Linux PC, and intercepts and filters all the VoIP packets as they go in and out of the machine, and secures the call on the fly. You can use a variety of different software VoIP clients to make a VoIP call. The Zfone software detects when the call starts, and initiates a cryptographic key agreement between the two parties, and then proceeds to encrypt and decrypt the voice packets. It has its own little separate GUI, telling the user if the call is secure. It's as if Zfone were a "bump on the cord", sitting between the VoIP client and the Internet. Think of it as a bump in the protocol stack.

Why is this shocking?

I'm trying to figure out why the summary calls this document "shocking." Interesting yes, shocking no. It is well known that the law requires VOIP providers to maintain a capability for law enforcement agencies to wiretap. This requirement has been around for years, and is completely consistent with older "Plain Old Telephone Service." Its not like CALEA is hidden. You can find its website with a quick google. The author of the summary seems to be conflating CALEA with the dustup with the Bush administration and unlawful wiretaps. They are separate issues. Conflating them helps no one.

Old

This was leaked at least 4 years ago [interesting-people.org].

Public Standards

Yawn. This is the FBI's implementation plan, not some super-secret details of the specs. This is derived from J-STD-025A, J-STD-025B, and EWA 3.0 AMTA docs. Feel free to Google for those. The first and last you should be able to find. The "B" one they want money for, so it is harder to find freely online.

Those detail exactly WHAT and HOW monitoring is going to occur, on a technical level.

And don't get your knickers in a twist about the FBI document. I've already seen one instance where the FBI told a carrier "we want it done this way" and the carrier's lawyers said "no, that isn't legal and we won't do it". Of course, it was probably a result of the software not being implemented in that manner and it would have cost the carrier mucho $$ to do it the FBI's way...

Nothing like a few $$ to prompt the legal dept. to see it your way.

http://www.google.com/search?q=j-std-025&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t [google.com]

Words not found in pdf with a quick search

The words "warrant" and "judge" do not appear in this document.

Re:

But it does contain "When legally authorized."

It's routine Big Brother stuff

There's not much new here. If you're familiar with CALEA, the law that hooked the Government into the phone system big-time, this is basically the same set of requirements the FBI wanted for voice calls. There was a big disagreement in the voice world over in-band signalling. The question was whether a "pen register" warrant authorized access to signalling data that goes over the voice channel, like Touch-Tone tones sent to some non-carrier device. The FBI was bitching about that for years.

The trouble with all this stuff is that Congress didn't mandate proper auditing. Every surveillance event in CALEA ought to be logged by the Judicial Branch, at the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. [uscourts.gov] We don't have that.

Re:paradigm shift

Time to take Thomas Jefferson's advice?

Re:

I think you're the wrong side of the gold rush for that to work any more......

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's pretty much the point when the US that he envisioned more or less got replaced with what you have now.

Re:

Did Jefferson mention encryption? It's probably more likely to happen than getting people to go outside and get killed by the police or whatever.

Re:paradigm shift

You mean "Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do [thinkexist.com] (at least over an unsecured medium)"? ;)

I call BS

When used properly with *warrants*, wiretapping is an important law enforcement tool. Don't go confusing bad behavior by the Government with necessary law enforcement tools.

The capability is needed, but so is proper oversight and protection of Consitutional rights. Then again all you wanted was to squeeze in your Obama ad ;)

Re:

The void of anarchy is usually filled with totalitarianism.

Re:paradigm shift

Anarchy exists nowhere but in the individual mind.

In any society of human individuals greater than one, there will always evolve some system of governance.

It is not a question of whether you will lose any freedom, but of how much you will lose.

Re:paradigm shift

It is said that Anarchy is the absence of rulers, not the absence of rule.

Take the free software movement as an example... the movement isn't ruled by anyone, the society of human individuals (programmers) can license their work any way they like, but they _choose_ to push for freedom on to others.

Those who are free to choose are not ruled.

don't know what you're talking about

>It is said that Anarchy is the absence of rulers, not the absence of rule.
said by who? Let me guess, he was an "anarchist," by which I mean high school drop out living in his mom's basement, complaining that society would be "so much more awesome" if t

Re:paradigm shift

It is at least a talking point of the Democrats. But one which I wouldn't trust Hillary to follow. And there is no question that McCain couldn't give a rat's ass about your privacy as to the FBI.

So yes, Obama is a better pick on individual rights than either of the alternatives.

Whether it will be a huge difference, or whether he will remain true to this, noone can be sure. As in life, there are no guarantees in politics.

Re:paradigm shift

Recording police interrogations is a manifestly good thing. It ensures, among other things, that the police can't simply beat you until you confess.

Surveillance of public servants and surveillance of the general populace aren't even remotely similar.

Re:

Read what you write before you post it, because I'm not sure you actually realize what you just said. If so, hope your Karma enjoys its vacation.

You would rather have police locked in a room with someone and walk out with a supposedly signed confession dis

Re:paradigm shift

Obama has done nothing to show that he would be any different then the others but you are willing to cut him a pass because you don't know.

Senator Obama's qualifications Include a J.D. in constitutional law from Harvard, He was a lecturer of constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School, and he worked as a community organizer and later as a lawyer representing community organizers on voting rights and discrimination issues.

So yeah I think that there is some evidence that he might have a better understanding of and respect for the constitution of the United States of America.

this can be confirmed with a simple wikipedia [wikipedia.org] search or set of google searches (or by reading his first book, Dreams from My Father).



Just because something is not yet proven does not mean that no evidence exists.

Re:paradigm shift

If you think Ackbar Hussein Osama is going to be any bigger on individual rights than Grandpa and the Bitch, then you are sadly mistaken.

It's interesting that you should refer to "Barack" as "Ackbar." Admiral Ackbar was an accomplished leader of the Rebel Alliance, which was the "good" side in the Star Wars universe. He spent much of his career fighting the (evil) Galactic Empire.

It's telling that you should be using the name in a derogatory way.

In any case, I'm not the biggest expert in Star Wars, unlike some here, but evidently at some point Ackbar was wrongly accused of treason by a politically-motivated opponent. We'll have to watch Fox News over the next several months to find out how much life imitates art.

Re:Congratulations...

It's frightening that you think leaking information "about legal and non-controversial wire taps" is "borderline treason". If this really is as boring as you think, then why would millions need to be spent to undo any damage, why would the US gov start legal action, and why would there need to be an internal investigation?

Re:

"Privacy" as discussed here is about protecting privacy from the government, to whom we pay taxes and who might imprison us, prosecute us, or target us for our beliefs, words, or affiliations. Privacy from the general public is a different issue. Please ar