VeriSign to Help Telecoms With Wiretap Orders

R. A. Hettinga rah at shipwright.com
Mon Jun 3 20:33:48 EDT 2002


http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51040-2002Jun3?language=printer


washingtonpost.com

VeriSign to Help Telecoms With Wiretap Orders


Reuters
Monday, June 3, 2002; 8:01 AM


SAN FRANCISCO-Security and Web address provider VeriSign Inc. Monday
unveiled a new service to help U.S. telecommunications carriers comply with
wiretapping regulations that have gained more prominence since the attacks
of Sept. 11.

Mountain View, California-based VeriSign is testing its new "NetDiscovery"
wiretapping services, which is expected to be commercially available in
early July for land-line, wireless and cable carriers, said Terry Kremian,
executive vice president of VeriSign's telecommunications services.

Under the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994,
telecommunications companies must have systems that allow law enforcement
officials acting with a court order or other legal authorization to
intercept targeted telephone calls and access caller ID data quickly.

The law also requires carriers to provide the resulting wiretap data to the
police or the FBI in a way that allows it to delivered or transmitted
offsite to government offices.

While the deadline for complying with the federal wiretapping act was
originally set for Sept. 30, 2001, the Federal Communications Commission
has extended it several times because of the complexity and cost of the
task, Kremian said. Carriers and telecom providers now have until June 30
to comply.

Kremian said carriers can outsource these operations to VeriSign for a
monthly fee, Kremian said, rather than spending as much as $500,000 to
upgrade each switch and $150,000 annually to administer such a system.

The company, which operates the ".com," ".net" and ".org" domain name
look-up system and sells Web addresses, also offers e-commerce security and
payment services, and recently added telecom services with the acquisitions
of Illuminet Holdings and H.O. Systems.

With Illuminet, VeriSign acquired the largest independent
carrier-to-carrier switching network in the United States. The network
routes land-line and wireless calls and enables carriers to offer caller
ID, roaming and other services.

© 2002 Reuters



-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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