A Brief Overview of CALEA
CALEA stands for Computer Assistance for Law Enforcement Act and derives its name from a 1994 law passed by the Congress. The following is from the FBI's AskCALEA site
"In October 1994, Congress took action to protect public safety and ensure national security by enacting the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (CALEA), Pub. L. No. 103-414, 108 Stat. 4279. The law further defines the existing statutory obligation of telecommunications carriers to assist law enforcement in executing electronic surveillance pursuant to court order or other lawful authorization. The objective of CALEA implementation is to preserve law enforcement's ability to conduct lawfully-authorized electronic surveillance while preserving public safety, the public's right to privacy, and the telecommunications industry's competitiveness."
CALEA was intended to cover "telecommunications" services rather then "information" services and its initial purpose was to change the way telephone networks were structured to allow for easier wiretapping to take place. There was no reference to Internet service in the original CALEA legislation.
CALEA and Internet Service Providers
However, in March 2004, the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the DEA filed a joint petition with the FCC to address issues related to CALEA, primarily communications which travel over the Internet.
In August of 2004 the FCC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking seeking public comment on this issue.
In August of 2005 the FCC issued the First Report and Order which stated a that the FCC "conclude that the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) applies to facilities-based broadband Internet access providers and providers of interconnected voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service." This order also set May 14, 2007 as the date by which all broadband Internet access providers must be compliant with CALEA regulations.
In essence, this means that by May 14, 2007, MCN ( and all U.S. ISP's) will be required by the FCC to maintain a surveillance backdoor for law enforcement agencies into our network and do so at our own expense.
On May 12, 2006 the FCC released The Second Report and Order and Memorandum Opinion and Order which affirmed May 14, 2007 the deadline for CALEA compliance.
The Legal Challenges
Immediately following the release of the First Report and Order and number of organizations including the American Library Association, COMPTEL, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Pulver.com and Sun Microsystems filed an appeal with District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals which was rejected. These organizations have filed an appeal to have the full court hear the appeal.
Legislative Activity
Because of the legal challenges to the FCC's CALEA orders, the Department of Justice is now reportedly proposing that legislation be enacted which would clarify the extent to which Internet service providers will need comply.
References
The next post will contain links to many web pages regarding CALEA including the sources used in creating this post.