Lawful interception is the legal sanction to grant access to private communications. It is a security process in which the service provider or the telecom operator provides the law officers intercepted communication of private individuals and organizations. Lawful interception (LI) is a legal requirement across states and is influenced by various technological innovations. The concept of lawful interception is as old as the telecom technology. Lawful interception is widely used by various law forces to keep a track of criminal activities along with solving of criminal cases.

Lawful interception (LI) is the procedure of getting communication information with the help of legal sanct

Lawful interception is the legal sanction to grant access to private communications. It is a security process in which the service provider or the telecom operator provides the law officers intercepted communication of private individuals and organizations. Lawful interception (LI) is a legal requirement across states and is influenced by various technological innovations. The concept of lawful interception is as old as the telecom technology. Lawful interception is widely used by various law forces to keep a track of criminal activities along with solving of criminal cases.

Lawful interception (LI) is the procedure of getting communication information with the help of legal sanctions. Lawful interception is not restricted to a single mode of communication and is equally applicable to all communication channels. Communication in the form of voices calls and email through various means like telephone calls, messages, VoIP communication and so on are part of the system.

Initially there were no government norms with respect to getting this information. Later, during the period of 1970’s, law enforcements started getting involved in the overall process. With the help of lawful interception, authorities can easily get relevant data from various communication networks. The data shared is in the form of signals or network management or at times the original communication which is used to analyze the communication. This communication is considered as a valid evidence in the court of law for future reference.

The threat of using of LI for illegal purpose is ever-present and there is responsibility on the government organizations to ensure that balance is maintained. At the same time communication shared by the network companies should be clear and accurate. There is a strict process followed by the networks to adhere to the timelines while providing required data. The data delivery needs to be direct from the source to mediation device without any human interceptions. The norms and rules followed by each country with respect to Lawful Interception is different.

Lawful interception has played a vital role in solving many criminal cases. However at the same time there are incidences wherein lawful interception has been used for illegal activities.

Case 1: Case of stolen painting

In March 2011, a Van Gogh painting was stolen from a private collector based in Budapest. The investigation was carried on for a long period of time, i.e., months and months. Once they had identified a potential suspect, the process of wiretapping his calls started. It is during one of the conversations during his travel from Hungary to Vienna, he mentioned the details of the robbery to his associate. His conversation helped the team of police officers of Hungary, to finally find that painting. The conversation was submitted as evidence in the court of law.

Case 2: The Athens Affair

The Athens affair is about the misuse of lawful interception, and also about how it opened a plethora of subsequent scandal. On 9th March 2005, the body of Costas Tsalikidis was found hanging in his apartment. Costas, was working as a Greek electrical engineer with Vodafone, when this incident happened no one had thought that it would open up a box full of scandals. Next day, Greek Prime minister Costas Karamanlis came to know that his cellphone along with almost 100 other high-profile dignitaries were being tapped. Along with the authorities the calls of an employee of U.S. embassy was also being tapped. What was common among all the victims was that they were all subscribers of Vodafone telecom operators.

Investigations revealed that there was an illegal software that was found in four of the network switches used to connect two lines and make a call. The software was copying ordinary calls and sending it to 14 additional phone lines, leading to a conference call without the knowledge of the people involved. Further study bought to light that there were two software found in the switch. The first was the one installed for lawful interception, as and when required by the regulatory authorities. The second was similar to a virus which activated the preinstalled features and hid all the traces of activation.

In the year of 2011, finally there was clarity about the real culprits behind the incident. Evidence stated from the 14 phone lines, 3 of them were bought on the same day from the same shop by one Markos Petrou. Through these handsets there were calls made to the U.S. Embassy staff present in Athens. This led to the conclusion that the US Embassy was involved in the conspiracy and a case was registered against them in the Head of Appeals Prosecution office.

The impact of the scandal was huge, especially in terms of social impacts. Feeling of distrust with respect to mobile communication was evident among various users. Ultimately, the willingness of Greek government to maintain healthy relations with the U.S. government led to closure of the case.

It is to be noted that on December 2006, Vodafone was heavily fined for illegally wiretapping 106 cellular devices. The amount was close to 76 million pounds, resulting in 500,000 pound of each phone that has been tapped. An additional 15 million pounds was also charged towards breach of privacy rules.

Conclusion:

Lawful interception is a powerful tool that can be used for the betterment of society. It can be either be used for good or bad both. The government authorities are being vigilant towards implementation of lawful interception. Every country has its own set of rules and regulations with respect to the lawful interception. Various telecom operators are guided to work on the instructions of specific regulatory authorities. Rights to ask for communication in the form of voice or message or email, has been given to only selected government institutions and authorities.

Today there is constant innovation happening across the various sectors of industries and it is overall impacting the way things work. There are new modes of communication entering the market at regular intervals and hence it is important that lawful interception processes are compatible to changing technologies. Technologies like VoIP, Volte, 4G and internet calling have taken precedence over other modes of communication and lawful interception is adapting to the technical innovations.