Where did Iran get its Net censoring technology?

Jake Widman
Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:46

Business IT - Security

In a blog post , Ben Roome claimed that Nokia provided the Iranian government with no more communications monitoring abilities than the law demands -- including the laws in the U.S. and European Union member states.

Roome referred to a statement on the Nokia Siemens website, which says, "In most countries around the world, including all EU member states and the U.S., telecommunications networks are legally required to have the capability for Lawful Intercept and this is also the case in Iran."

"To fulfill this Lawful Intercept requirement as part of an expansion to provide further mobile connectivity to Iran in the second half of 2008, Nokia Siemens Networks provided TCI, the Iranian national operator, with the capability to conduct voice monitoring of local calls on its fixed and mobile network," the statement continues.

"The restricted functionality monitoring center provided by Nokia Siemens Networks in Iran cannot provide data monitoring, internet monitoring, deep packet inspection, international call monitoring or speech recognition. Therefore, contrary to speculation in the media, the technology supplied by Nokia Siemens Networks cannot be used for the monitoring or censorship of Internet traffic."

 Roome said that he was unable to clarify these points when he was contacted by the WSJ.

He also replied to critics who questioned whether Nokia Siemens should have been dealing with Iran at all.

"The fact that telecom networks in Iran -- as they are all over the world -- are required by law to have the ability to monitor specific voice calls, needs to be weighed against the huge empowerment that connectivity brings to ordinary Iranians," Roome said.

"So given this Lawful Intercept is mandatory, the question we have to ask is: Would people in Iran be better off without access to telecommunications at all?"

For more on where Iran might have gotten its censorship technology, see Page 4.