Lawfare: CALEA Was a National Security Disaster Waiting to Happen

Adding wiretapping to a telephone switch creates an architected security breach. CALEA had a requirement about protecting the wiretapping systems’ security (Section 301(b) of the statute). So in 1997, the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Privacy Information Center, and Electronic Frontier Foundation presciently filed objections to CALEA being implemented before “industry security procedures are determined.” That didn’t happen. Instead, development of CALEA wiretapping requirements proceeded apace.

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