Metaswitch cleared by FBI for spying

[Thomas Shaddack]

> ALAMEDA, Calif. -- MetaSwitch, supplier of the VP3500, the industry's first
> true Next Generation Class 5 Switch, announced today that it has completed
> an extensive review with the FBI, which demonstrates that the MetaSwitch
> CALEA specification meets the J-STD-025A standard for circuit switching
> equipment.

What's the chance to amend the H.323 specs with end-to-end encryption,
and/or make publicly available design of phone switching system built on
fully open designs, something that the user can audit and amend, something
over which nobody but the user has the control?

There are already general steps in the right direction out there, see eg.
http://www.openh323.org/ and http://www.opencores.org/ - could even be a
good small-to-medium size business for the manufacturers of the hardware,
generic boards for the PABXes - boards with interface circuits, and empty,
user-programmable FPGAs? An open-source FPGA core firmware could come free
with the package, or developed in-house to suit needs (or, most likely,
combination of both approaches - build the function from blocks).

Then we'd get cheaper private switchboards with guaranteed NO CALEA
"extensions", full knowledge of what's inside (and the associated chance
to do our own in-house service without need of expensive vendor service
contracts and dependency on their servicemen).

Fully open, fully documented designs are the only doable way of getting
infrastructure building blocks that aren't vulnerable to incorporating
(either by the vendor being forced by law, or by "voluntary cooperation")
of little agents of Big Brother.

Or did I smoked one puff too much?