wiretapping, Index

The evil incident to invasion of the privacy of the telephone is far greater than that involved in tampering with the mails. Whenever a telephone line is tapped, the privacy of the persons at both ends of the line is invaded, and all conversations between them upon any subject, and although proper, confidential, and privileged, may be overheard. Moreover, the tapping of one man's telephone line involves the tapping of the telephone of every other person whom he may call, or who may call him. As a means of espionage, writs of assistance and general warrants are but puny instruments of tyranny and oppression when compared with wire tapping. Justice Louis Brandeis, Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928)

Broadband providers and Internet phone companies will have to pick up the tab for the cost of building in mandatory wiretap access for police surveillance, federal regulators ruled Wednesday. The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to levy what likely will amount to wiretapping taxes on companies, municipalities and universities, saying it would create an incentive for them to keep costs down and that it was necessary to fight the war on terror. Universities have estimated their cost to be about $7 billion.

The NSA warrantless surveillance controversy concerns the NSA electronic surveillance program, a formerly secret program of eavesdropping on certain telephone calls without warrants from the secret United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The Bush administration refers to it as the "Terrorist Surveillance Program."[1]

In a research paper appearing in the November/December 2005 issue of IEEE Security and Privacy, we analyzed publicly available information and materials to evaluate the reliability of the telephone wiretapping technologies used by US law enforcement agencies. The analysis found vulnerabilities in widely fielded interception technologies that are used for both "pen register" and "full audio" (Title III / FISA) taps. The vulnerabilities allow a party to a wiretapped call to disable content recording and call monitoring and to manipulate the logs of dialed digits and call activity. These countermeasures do not require cooperation with the called party, elaborate equipment, or special skill. Preliminary drafts of the paper have been made available to the law enforcement community; contact the authors at the above email address.

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The above three pictures are of a common 25 line terminal or demarcation box which is used by the phone company for many business telephone installations. This particular one was found behind a law office. Notice how there are no locks or security devices on the box, an eavesdropper can simply walk up to this box and attach a bug or tape recorder in under ten seconds. This is one of the easiest locations for any eavesdropper to listen to private calls being made. In the case of a residence the box is typically much smaller, but no more secure. This is often called a "demarcation point", and most people are completely oblivious to how vulnerable this box is to eavesdropping.

If you are concerned about covert eavesdropping then it may be wise to contact Granite Island Group, or another TSCM firm and immediately schedule a "Bug Sweep" or TSCM inspection. However, do not call from a suspect telephone, and understand that it is critical that you get some out to your location as quietly, and as quickly as possible.

Protection from warrantless search and seizure is the fundamental right of all Americans, and the law is clear that wiretapping must be supported by a warrant. History shows us that when warrantless wiretapping is permitted, the government, under the guise of fighting crime, intercepts communications to further its own political purposes. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the target of warrantless wiretapping. Opponents of the Vietnam war were targets of warrantless wiretapping.

DETROIT (AP) - A federal judge ruled Thursday that the government's warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it. U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency's program, which she says violates the rights to free speech and privacy as well as the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.