It's Worse Than You Think (Score 3)

2 Things:

1. The FBI wants to tape the first 10 seconds of every call, and store it in an archive.
They want these tapes "just in case" they need to monitor conversations that happened in the past.

They can do this very easily because CALEA allows the feds to log into a switch and electronically listen to any conversation they want to, since the information will be sent straight from the switch to the FBI office over a high speed fiber connection.

Previously the Feds had to attach something physically to the wire to listen in, now they just telnet to the switch and have complete access!

2. It's not just Nortel that's providing the software. Lucent, Ericsson, and every other telephone switch provider in America is required to have this functionality by December 1999.
If they do not comply, they will be heavily fined by the government.

Lucent switches, the core of the Bell network, will have this functionality by October 1999.
That's next month!

We have to do something about this now!

-- Rose Kennedy (A former telecom switch programmer)