Fergie's Tech Blog

Groups Slam FCC on Internet Phone Tap Rule

An AP newswire article by Jennifer C. Kerr, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

New regulations making it easier for law enforcement to tap Internet phone calls will also make computer systems more vulnerable to hackers, digital privacy and civil liberties groups say.

While the groups don't want the Internet to be a safe haven for terrorists and criminals, they complain that expanding wiretapping laws to cover Internet calls — or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) — will create additional points of attack and security holes that hackers can exploit.

"Once you enable third-party access to Internet-based communication, you create a vulnerability that didn't previously exist," Marc Rotenberg, executive director at the Electronic Privacy Information Center said in an interview Wednesday. "It will put at risk the stability and security of the Internet."

posted by Fergie @ 8/10/2005 03:58:00 PM