Statement Of FBI Assistant Director Kerry E. Haynes, Operational Technology Division, On Today’s Court Ruling On VOIP

Washington D.C. – Kerry E. Haynes, FBI Assistant Director, Operational Technology Division , issued the following statement in response to today’s appeals court ruling on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services:

“ Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit appropriately upheld the FCC's ruling last year that Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone service providers and Broadband Network Access providers were covered by the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).

For federal agencies, including the FBI, implementation of today's ruling means that terrorists, spies, and criminals will find it harder to migrate to new internet-based services as a means of evading electronic surveillance authorized by federal courts.

As always, the FBI looks forward to working cooperatively with VoIP providers and Broadband providers to identify the technical lawful intercept needs of law enforcement so that industry may, within the framework of CALEA, quickly devise and issue the technical standards and specifications necessary to facilitate providers' compliance with CALEA in a timely, secure, cost-effective and efficient manner.”