Cisco Systems now has a way for the police to eavesdrop on increasingly popular Internet-based telephone calls without being found out, the Associated Press reported May 2.
Cisco spokesman Jim Brady told the AP the company is testing surveillance products in its labs and making the new snoop service available to Cisco customers on request. Brady also said Cisco built the capacity into "a limited number" of products, but none have been bought yet.
Calling it the Lawful Intercept Control after corporate customers and Internet service providers asked for it, Cisco told the AP they did not work with the government on developing it over the past eight months. But the AP added that Cisco turned in a 37ppafe proposal to the Internet Engineering Task Force in March, and that organization is taking comments on it for six months.
Police became worried that criminals could use Internet phone calls to duck surveillance when no standard existed for tapping into them as law enforcement has been able to do with standard telephony, the AP said.
