3 ms·

Is VoIP communication being Abused?

4 points by omfut 18y ago

jrockway 18y ago
Wow, this is a really poorly written article. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be "news" or "opinion", but either way, there is not much substance... and the writing isn't that great either. It seems like the author thinks Skype helps terrorism by allowing terrorists to communicate securely. This is true, it probably does. But by that logic, Wikipedia aids terrorism by letting terrorists get encyclopedia articles for free. We shouldn't let the "terrorism" boogeyman take our right to privacy away. There is plenty of reason for ordinary people to want secure VoIP. Maybe you don't want your boss listening in on conversations with your family. Maybe you don't want a casual eavesdropper to listen in on your conversation and take something the wrong way. Anyway, if Skype sells out to the governments of the world, it's trivial for the terrorists to use something else. I could probably write an encrypted VoIP app in an evening. So if you want to eliminate secure communication to aid the fight on terrorism, you are just giving up your own rights. You won't have secure phone calls, but you can bet the terrotists will.
- omfut 18y ago
  Iam not sure what was that you were looking for in the article. (Lawful intercept requirement is a vast subject to explain in few paragraphs). Couple of points: 1) Lawful intercept requirements have been supported by wireless and wireline switches for years now. So the ability to wiretap your conversation is already available to law enforcement agencies. Having said that, to wiretap any user, law enforcement agency should get a prior approval from the court. So just because a product supports wiretapping doesn’t mean that anyone can listen to your conversation. So below points mentioned by you doesn’t make sense "Maybe you don't want a casual eavesdropper to listen in on your conversation and take something the wrong way" 2) Skype has issues with supporting wiretapping because of its architecture. If it’s used for illegal activities then I don’t see any reason why law enforcement can force them to support the same. These are the guys who are working hard to nail these assholes. 3) I don’t see a point in comparing reading offline data like wikipedia and real-time voice communication.
lionhearted 18y ago
Let's replace "VoIP" with "paper" - We have heard a lot of stories about how paper has been used by terrorist and criminals for illegal activities. The recent Mumbai attack on Indian soil makes it more compelling for paper to support Lawful intercept requirements. So what makes this kind of communication more attractive to illegal activities. Hard to read the conversation. The regular PSTN and wireless communication standards have very good wiretapping capabilities and most of the vendors support Lawful Intercept features, using which, voice or text conversation can be wiretapped by Law enforcement agencies. Though the FCC has been pushing for Lawful Intercept requirement for reading and writing, very few vendors are really compliant with the requirement

4 points by omfut 18y ago

Wow, this is a really poorly written article. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be "news" or "opinion", but either way, there is not much substance... and the writing isn't that great either. It seems like the author thinks Skype helps terrorism by allowing terrorists to communicate securely. This is true, it probably does. But by that logic, Wikipedia aids terrorism by letting terrorists get encyclopedia articles for free. We shouldn't let the "terrorism" boogeyman take our right to privacy away. There is plenty of reason for ordinary people to want secure VoIP. Maybe you don't want your boss listening in on conversations with your family. Maybe you don't want a casual eavesdropper to listen in on your conversation and take something the wrong way. Anyway, if Skype sells out to the governments of the world, it's trivial for the terrorists to use something else. I could probably write an encrypted VoIP app in an evening. So if you want to eliminate secure communication to aid the fight on terrorism, you are just giving up your own rights. You won't have secure phone calls, but you can bet the terrotists will.

omfut 18y ago
Iam not sure what was that you were looking for in the article. (Lawful intercept requirement is a vast subject to explain in few paragraphs). Couple of points: 1) Lawful intercept requirements have been supported by wireless and wireline switches for years now. So the ability to wiretap your conversation is already available to law enforcement agencies. Having said that, to wiretap any user, law enforcement agency should get a prior approval from the court. So just because a product supports wiretapping doesn’t mean that anyone can listen to your conversation. So below points mentioned by you doesn’t make sense "Maybe you don't want a casual eavesdropper to listen in on your conversation and take something the wrong way" 2) Skype has issues with supporting wiretapping because of its architecture. If it’s used for illegal activities then I don’t see any reason why law enforcement can force them to support the same. These are the guys who are working hard to nail these assholes. 3) I don’t see a point in comparing reading offline data like wikipedia and real-time voice communication.

lionhearted 18y ago

Let's replace "VoIP" with "paper" - We have heard a lot of stories about how paper has been used by terrorist and criminals for illegal activities. The recent Mumbai attack on Indian soil makes it more compelling for paper to support Lawful intercept requirements. So what makes this kind of communication more attractive to illegal activities. Hard to read the conversation. The regular PSTN and wireless communication standards have very good wiretapping capabilities and most of the vendors support Lawful Intercept features, using which, voice or text conversation can be wiretapped by Law enforcement agencies. Though the FCC has been pushing for Lawful Intercept requirement for reading and writing, very few vendors are really compliant with the requirement