Voice Over IP: Privacy and Forensic Implications

With the tremendous growth in popularity and bandwidth of the Internet, VoIP technology has emerged that allows phone calls to be routed over Internet infrastructure rather than the traditional Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) infrastructure. The issues faced by law enforcement authorities concerning VoIP are very different from that of traditional telephony. Wiretapping is not applicable to VoIP calls and packet capturing is negated by encryption. This article discusses experimental work carried out to explore methods by which electronic evidence may be collected from systems where VoIP conversations play an important role in suspected criminal activity or communications. It also considers the privacy issues associated with the growing use of VoIP.