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LAWFUL INTERCEPTION Activity Report 2008
Chairman: Peter van der Arend (Vodafone Group Plc)
Responsible for developing standards that allow support of the
requirements of national and international law for the lawful interception of
electronic communications where those communications services are built using
ETSI or other open standards.
Lawful interception (LI) and Data Retention play a crucial
role in helping law enforcement agencies to combat terrorism and serious
criminal activity. It is therefore an essential part of the infrastructure
supporting electronic transactions. As such, it is a key factor in the growth
and development of the Information Society.
The providers of public telecommunications networks and services are legally
required to make available to law enforcement authorities the information
necessary to enable them to monitor telecommunications traffic in support of
investigations of criminal activities.
Global interest in the work of ETSI’s Lawful Interception Technical Committee
(TC LI) continues to grow, with very good attendance at plenary meetings and new
organisations interested in participating in the standardisation process.
In 2009 TC LI focussed on the update of the Lawful Interception and Data
Retention suite of deliverables, and new work was initiated on dynamic
triggering and Call Content Triggering Function (CCTF) standardisation.
TC LI updated the ETSI Technical Specification (TS) on the handover interface
for the request and delivery of retained data, which enables governments to
implement the requirements of the European Directive on Data Retention
(2006/24). The Committee also revised the TS on the handover interface for the
lawful interception of telecommunications traffic. TC LI continues to
participate in the EC’s Expert Group, the ‘Platform for Electronic Data
Retention for the Investigation, Detection and Prosecution of Serious Crime’,
and monitors the development of their work.
TC LI updated the existing ETSI Technical Report (TR) which defines a security
framework for securing LI and the Retained Data environment of the Communication
Service Provider (CSP) and the handover of the information, and offers guidance
on implementation. The Committee also revised the TS on the LI requirements of
law enforcement agencies.
Maintenance of the multi-part TS on the handover interface and Service-Specific
Details (SSD) for IP delivery for various services continues; a number of the
component parts were revised in 2009, specifically Part 2 for e-mail services,
Part 3 for Internet access services and Part 5 for IP multimedia services.
Throughout 2009, TC LI worked closely with other committees within ETSI on
lawful interception aspects of their standards including the Terrestrial Trunked
Radio (TC TETRA), Satellite Earth Stations and Systems (TC SES) and
Telecommunication and Internet converged Services and Protocols for Advanced
Networking (TC TISPAN) Technical Committees.
TC LI collaborates very closely with the LI group in the Third Generation
Partnership Project (3GPP™), SA3-LI, on lawful interception for the Universal
Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS™) and the Global System for Mobile
Communication (GSM™). By monitoring each other’s activities, the two groups
ensure that their respective LI specifications are aligned. TC LI also liaises
with the Telecommunications standardisation sector of the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU-T).
To help raise the profile of TC LI and its work on lawful interception and
retained data, in 2009 the Chairman gave presentations at the Intelligence
Support Systems (ISS) World Conference meetings in Dubai, Singapore and Prague,
and at the 4th ETSI Security Workshop in January 2009 he presented TC LI work’s
on Data Retention.
TC LI is pioneering the development of LI and ETSI’s LI standards are being
adopted around the world. New contacts have been made with parties interested in
ETSI’s lawful interception activities; some of these, including the Indonesian
law enforcement agency, have joined TC LI and become ETSI Members.
The new work begun on dynamic triggering and Call Content Triggering Function
(CCTF) standardisation in 2009 will be continued in 2010. Service and network
architectures are becoming increasingly non-monolithic, with multiple operators
involved in supplying a service to a single user. It is not unusual for the
service provider at the application or signalling layer to be different from the
access provider. In addition, for some services it is necessary to have the
option to intercept the core network where there is not always a link between
the identifier used in the application layer and the identifiers used in the
access/transport domain (usually an IP address). TC LI will work closely with TC
TISPAN and 3GPP as necessary to develop a common solution for dynamic
triggering.
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