Law Enforcement

Subsentio Supports Law Enforcement

The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1994 to address the needs of law enforcement for technical capabilities when conducting lawful electronic surveillance, or lawful intercepts (LI), on telecommunications carrier networks. The purpose of CALEA was to preserve LI technical capabilities despite evolutions in telecommunications network technologies. This goal was to be accomplished in a manner that protects telecommunications subscriber privacy and leaves carriers free to launch new services and technologies.

The FCC has ruled that the scope of CALEA telecommunications carriers includes providers of facilities-based broadband Internet access and two-way interconnected VoIP. Because certain cloud computing networks offer services via broadband access and two-way interconnected VoIP they, too, are covered by CALEA.

A CALEA-covered entity must ensure that when it is served by a court order for LI its equipment, facilities, and services can isolate the communications of the suspect identified in the order and deliver them to the law enforcement agency named in the order. The statute divides a suspect’s communications into two categories: call content and “call-identifying information.” The carrier must deliver only call-identifying information that is “reasonably available” in its network.

All required LI data must be delivered “unobtrusively” to avoid tipping off the suspect that he or she is subject to LI. The CALEA-covered service provider is not responsible for decrypting any intercepted communications unless the carrier itself was the entity that provided the encryption.

Today it is more important than ever for communication service providers to be aware of their lawful intercept obligations to protect against liability from both the government and subscribers. The government has grown more dependent on the tools of lawful surveillance to conduct national security investigations and criminal investigations.

Subsentio provides network security and surveillance management to its communications service provider customers while at the same time assuring that the court ordered intercepts are delivered in a timely manner to the required law enforcement monitoring locations. For law enforcement, a virtual private network (VPN) connection to Subsentio solves the complications created by multiple protocols and target identifiers, layered networks and technologies into a single standards based solution, regardless of the network or how the target is accessing the network. For the large monitoring locations of the FBI, DEA, U.S. Marshals, etc., Subsentio maintains permanent VPN connectivity between its Network Operations Center (NOC) and those locations, as well as periodic testing of the connectivity with our industry standard collection equipment.

Subsentio assists law enforcement in completing their mission. Law enforcement investigators and technical agents interface with former law enforcement agents at Subsentio, who clearly understand the challenges and complexity of lawful intercept activities. We ensure that there is continual communication between Subsentio and each law enforcement agent to confirm that the requested intelligence is being delivered and will be terminated correctly.

This portion of the Subsentio website is dedicated to Law Enforcement. It will provide pertinent information to Law Enforcement on how to interact with Subsentio and its customers.