Method and apparatus for securely transmitting lawfully intercepted VOIP data

• US 9,456,009 B2
• Filed: 08/03/2007
• Issued: 09/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Smoyer, Clinton J., Smith, Shane M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kassim, Khaled
• Assistant Examiner(s): HARLEY, JASON A
• Application Number:
  US11/890,194
• Publication Number:
  US 20090034510A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,343 Days
• Field of Search: 370352-356, 370/231, 370/466, 370/363, 709/227
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/30 for supporting lawful interception, monitoring or retaining of communications or communication related information circuit switched telephony call monitoring H04M3/2281
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1076 Screening of IP real time communications, e.g. spam over Internet telephony [SPIT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2281 Call monitoring, e.g. for law enforcement purposes; Call tracing; Detection or prevention of malicious calls

Abstract

A method, apparatus, and computer usable program product for transmitting intercepted VOIP data are provided in the illustrative embodiments. A VOIP call is intercepted in response to a lawful request for intercept by a law enforcement agency. VOIP data associated with the intercepted VOIP call is encrypted. The encryption may use a virtual private network an encryption using a key of a specific length, bit stuffing, or other encryption methods. The encrypted VOIP data is transmitted to the law enforcement agency using a public data network either during the VOIP call or after the VOIP call. The intercept request may be made during the VOIP call, or before the VOIP call. Furthermore, the VOIP data of the VOIP call may be stored before transmitting to the law enforcement agency, and archived based on archiving rules. The request for the intercept may be queued for processing according to queuing rules. Notifications based on the request for intercept, VOIP call characteristics, or characteristics of the VOIP data may be sent to one or more law enforcement agencies, and may also be encrypted.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting intercepted VOIP data, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of requests to intercept distinct VOIP calls from a plurality of law enforcement agencies;

placing the plurality of requests for intercept in a queue;

assigning a priority to one or more of the plurality of requests for intercept in the queue based on a priority assigned to one of the requesting law enforcement agencies with respect to another of the requesting law enforcement agencies to determine a position of one or more requests for intercept in the queue;

intercepting a VOIP call corresponding to a highest priority request for intercept of the plurality of requests for intercept in the queue;

encrypting VOIP data associated with the intercepted VOIP call by using one of a virtual private network, an encryption using a key of a specific key length, bit stuffing, and an encryption specific to the law enforcement agency to form encrypted VOIP data; and

transmitting the encrypted VOIP data to the law enforcement agency over a virtual private network established over the internet between a transmitting component and the law enforcement agency.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the request is received one of during the VOIP call, before the VOIP call, and after the VOIP call.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the VOIP data.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the storing is of the VOIP data before encrypting.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the storing is of the VOIP data after encrypting but before transmitting.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting occurs one of during the VOIP call and after the VOIP call.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

notifying the law enforcement agency with a notification about an event, wherein the event is related to at least one of the request for intercept, the VOIP call, and the VOIP data.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the notification is encrypted.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the notification is delivered to a second law enforcement agency.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the notification and the VOIP data are encrypted using different encryptions.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

archiving the VOIP data.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the archiving is based on a set of rules, and wherein a rule in the set of rules uses at least one of the request for intercept, a characteristic of the VOIP data, and a characteristic of the VOIP call to determine a scope of archiving.

13. A computer usable program product in a non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions for transmitting intercepted VOIP data that, when executed, cause a data processing system to:

receive a plurality of requests to intercept distinct VOIP calls from a plurality of law enforcement agencies;

place the plurality of requests for intercept in a queue;

assign a priority to one or more of the plurality of requests for intercept in the queue based on a priority assigned to one of the law enforcement agencies with respect to another of the law enforcement agencies to determine a position of one or more requests for intercept in the queue;

intercept a VOIP call corresponding to a highest priority request for intercept of the plurality of requests for intercept in the queue;

encrypt VOIP data associated with the intercepted VOIP call by using one of a virtual private network, an encryption using a key of a specific key length, bit stuffing, and an encryption specific to the law enforcement agency to form encrypted VOIP data; and

transmit the encrypted VOIP data to the law enforcement agency over a virtual private network established over the internet between a transmitting component and the law enforcement agency.

14. The computer usable program product of claim 13, wherein the request is received one of during the VOIP call, before the VOIP call, and after the VOIP call.

15. The computer usable program product of claim 13, further comprising executable instructions that, when executed, cause a data processing system to:

store the VOIP data, forming stored VOIP data.

16. The computer usable program product of claim 15, wherein the stored VOIP data is the VOIP data before encrypting.

17. The computer usable program product of claim 15, wherein the stored VOIP data is the VOIP data after encrypting but before transmitting.

18. The computer usable program product of claim 13, wherein the transmitting occurs one of during the VOIP call and after the VOIP call.

19. The computer usable program product of claim 13, further comprising executable instructions that, when executed, cause the data processing system to:

notify the law enforcement agency with a notification about an event, wherein the event is related to at least one of the request for intercept, the VOIP call, and the VOIP data.

20. The computer usable program product of claim 19, wherein the notification is encrypted.

21. The computer usable program product of claim 19, wherein the notification is delivered to a second law enforcement agency.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the notification and the VOIP data are encrypted using different encryptions.

23. The computer usable program product of claim 13, further comprising executable instructions that, when executed, cause the data processing system to:

perform archiving of the VOIP data.

24. The computer usable program product of claim 23, wherein the archiving is based on a set of rules, and wherein a rule in the set of rules uses at least one of the request for intercept, a characteristic of the VOIP data, and a characteristic of the VOIP call to determine a scope of archiving.

25. A system for transmitting intercepted VOIP data, the system comprising:

a VOIP system comprising queuing logic to;

receive a plurality of requests to intercept distinct VOIP calls from a plurality of law enforcement agencies;

place the plurality of requests for intercept in a queue;

assign a priority to one or more of the plurality of requests for intercept in the queue based a priority assigned to one of the law enforcement agencies with respect to another of the law enforcement agencies to determine a position of one or more requests for intercept in the queue;

an intercept handling component configured to intercept a VOIP call corresponding to a highest priority request for intercept of the plurality of requests for intercept in the queue;

an encryption component configured to encrypt VOIP data associated with the intercepted VOIP call by using one of a virtual private network, an encryption using a key of a specific key length, bit stuffing, and an encryption specific to the law enforcement agency, to form encrypted VOIP data; and

a transmitting component configured to transmit the encrypted VOIP data to the law enforcement agency over a virtual private network established over the internet between the transmitting component and the law enforcement agency.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the request is received one of during the VOIP call, before the VOIP call, and after the VOIP call.

27. The system of claim 25, further comprising:

a storage configured to store the VOIP data.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the storing is of the VOIP data before encrypting.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein the storing is of the VOIP data after encrypting but before transmitting.

30. The system of claim 25, wherein the transmitting occurs one of during the VOIP call and after the VOIP call.

31. The system of claim 25, further comprising:

a notification component configured to notify the law enforcement agency with a notification about an event, wherein the event is related to at least one of the request for intercept, the VOIP call, and the VOIP data.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the notification is encrypted.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein the notification is delivered to a second law enforcement agency.

34. The system of claim 32, wherein the notification and the VOIP data are encrypted using different encryptions.

35. The system of claim 25, further comprising:

an archiving system for archiving the VOIP data.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the archiving is based on a set of rules, and wherein a rule in the set of rules uses at least one of the request for intercept, a characteristic of the VOIP data, and a characteristic of the VOIP call to determine a scope of archiving.