Lawful Interception towards standardization of regulations across regions

Emergence of Lawful Interception Market- Technologies & Mechanism

Emerging technologies in communications systems is continually changing the way individuals, enterprises and organizations communicate over private networks. Irrespective of the technology used, network and service providers have to grapple with cyber-based crimes—cyber threats and financial frauds—disrupting and damaging telecommunication or IT systems of private enterprises or organizations. Interception of data and voice communication of private communication networks have become a necessity to track and prosecute offenders involved in serious crimes such as kidnapping and hijacking, murders, and terrorism;  lawful interception is fast gaining ground as a potential tool to prevent these crimes.
 
Lawful interception is the legally grounded security process in which a communications network operator or service provider gives authorized officials access to the communications of individuals or organizations. The security process facilitates the entire investigation process for cops and law enforcement agencies (LEA) that includes different regulatory and administrative agencies, and intelligence services. Mandates and regulations governing the interception varies from state to state. Most countries in the world have some regulation in place—some countries, such as the U.S., are heavily regulated, with network and service providers required to have statutory obligation to ensure and maintain interception capabilities; while some countries, such as in Asia-Pacific, have emerging regulations in which each provider gets to design its own LI solution. Technology companies and service providers in these countries are mandated by legal frameworks that govern legal interception; these consist of various acts of parliament, directives and several legal texts or may be governed by umbrella acts. 

Most of the countries have global LI requirements and standards developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), 3GPP, or CableLabs organizations; in the U.S., similar LI requirements are enabled by the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), with specific mandates made by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice.

Prominent Trends in LI Market 

Traditionally, lawful interception market comprised of straightforward and uncomplicated technologies and procedures, since it was confined to circuit-switched networks carrying voice traffic. However, with time, as communication patterns have evolved to include a wide array of sophisticated and encrypted communication channels; the trend has unmistakably shifted to monitoring and interception of packet switched communications. Fulfilling fundamental requirements of lawful interception is not feasible without a valid and dedicated LI solutions. Technology companies in collaboration with network operators and service providers in various regions focus on parameters: cost effectiveness of the interception technology; minimal impact on the entire network infrastructure; compatibility and compliance; reliability and overall security; and, transparency and business ethics. Sometimes, law enforcement agencies have hard time to persuade technology companies to comply with reasonable lawful access requests—the recent saga of the refusal of Apple, Inc., a renowned iPhone maker, to help FBI unlock a device belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters. Such instances of non-compliance are few and far between, but point to mounting challenges in the growth of LI market. In another case, BlackBerry, in contrast to Apple’s position, urged tech companies should help the regional governments and LEA with ‘reasonable’ data requests by sharing the encryption keys. Meanwhile, the enforcement agencies should also ensure not falling in any protracted legal battle with service providers or quote controversy among the citizens; they must convince that the interception is highly warranted, backed by court orders and done in transparent manner. 

The way ahead—Market Opportunities

Over time, far reaching standardization has been achieved, and a majority of countries in the world are of the view that legal interception must be standards-based. Security agencies and service providers must follow these standards to achieve interoperability and smooth co-operation between LEAs and operators as well as ensuring adequate data protection. This will also lead technology companies and phone makers across the world to design a range products that have low cost interception technology; the trend will unlock vast potential in the growth of the market. As per a recent report by Allied Market Research titled “World Lawful Interception Market—Opportunities and Forecasts, 2015 – 2022”, world lawful interception market is expected to generate $3,328.7 million in 2022, growing at a CAGR of 23.3 % from 2016 to 2022. Geographically, the Asia-Pacific region is projected to be the fastest growing with an impressive CAGR of 26.0% during the forecast period; the growth is driven by fast evolving network technologies and mounting security concerns in the region.

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