Alert: New FCC Ruling Forces ISPs and VoIP Services to Open Up to Wiretapping

By David Johnston, Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

The FCC announced today that it is going to require broadband ISPs and VoIP providers to open up their networks so that they can be more easily tapped into and monitored. The release states that “certain broadband and interconnected voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services must be prepared to support law enforcement wiretaps.” Currently this initiative is limited to broadband users and VoIP networks that are capable of making calls to and from the traditional phone system (this would include Skype!).

Our Take: While I can see that there are certainly security benefits for the government to be able to tap someone’s internet connection, I hope that this won’t make it easier for unauthorized hackers to intercept data going over my internet connection. I also wonder how effective this would be in reality since it wouldn’t be too hard to use something like PGP to encrypt internet communications via Email.

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