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Lawful Interception
Introduction
Over the decade, the Internet has grown around the world into a new and efficient means for people to communicate and collaborate. Unfortunately, criminals and terrorists also use the Internet to coordinate and perpetrate crimes.
Governments are now moving quickly to introduce and/or amend legislation that provides for the Lawful Interception (LI) of Internet and Internet related services. These laws empower Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) to perform LI from the Internet in a similar manner to performing LI from switched, voice networks.
In 1997, the Federal government of Australia, introduced the Telecommunications Act, 1997 (the Act). The Act provides a frame-work for carriers and carriage service providers (CCSPs), including Internet Service Providers, to provide special assistance and lawful interception capabilities to Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs).
Hammond Street Developments Pty. Ltd. (HSD) has been working with LEAs, Carriers and Carriage Service Providers (CCSPs), including Internet Service Providers and Telecommunication Companies to develop an LI solution for Internet Protocol (IP) services.
HSD has undertaken extensive research and development work to provide solutions that will assist CCSPs and LEAs in providing LI services. A system called the Generic Traffic Interception System (GTIS) has been developed in line with the LEAs and CCSP requirements. GTIS is currently installed at major CCSPs around Australia and is providing valuable product for evidence and intelligence purposes.
HSD has taken an approach to LI where the acquisition of Internet content is strictly lawful and driven by the parameters of a Warrant. GTIS is far more than just another network probe or wire tap. GTIS fully encompasses the application of a Warrant for the lawful acquisition of Internet content for target subjects.
GTIS is designed to reduce the risk of LI for all stakeholders. When LI Warrants are served on a CCSP, there needs to be a solution that is designed to securely and discreetly acquire only target service content and quickly move the content to a LEA Monitoring Centre (MC) for analysis.
The following list identifies the key design considerations behind GTIS.
- Ensure that an LI Warrant is executed only within its parameters;
- Acquire all IP traffic for a target service and minimise the risk of intercepted data being accidentally or deliberately obtained by unauthorised entities;
- Ensure that only traffic for target service is acquired;
- Acquire connection (session) related data for a target service;
- Protect the identity of target services, package and encrypt all target content as quickly as possible;
- Provide a readily available and consistent solution that simplifies the implementation of interception systems and reduces the number of people involved in implementing a Warrant;
- Reduce the time taken to deliver intercepted data to an LEA;
- Reduce the risk of losing data due to system failures;
Network probes are easy to implement, however, GTIS provides a mediation platform, user interface, forwarding service and authentication integration to exactly orchestrate an LI Warrant. GTIS simplifies the capture of Internet services and ensures that the content is delivered in a secure and timely manner to the appropriate LEA.
For more information on LI, refer to Mobile LI and Convergence 1
