Crypto Info?

[kenmacd]

Hello, with the recent news reports on the massive surveillance of internet traffic does Fongo have any plans to enable SRTP on their network? For most customer it's not likely possible to connect to your network without the traffic going through the US.

Can you also speak to how the traffic is encrypted once it gets to your network, and on it's way to the PSTN?

[bridonca]

That would be a waste of resources. If you want effective encryption, it has to be on each end of the conversation, because you can encrypt 99% of the leg, and it would still be useless. I do not know of any solution off hand though.

[kenmacd]

I disagree. You can never have complete end to end encryption but that doesn't make it useless. For a voice call it will be decrypted on both ends. It's possible for someone to put a listening chip in everyones homes and listen to all the calls. Unlikely, but possible.

Instead you can encrypt the traffic along the risky part of it's path. When you say 'each end' you mean each system connected to the internet. This is fine if your looking to protect against anyone on the internet, but I'm not.

I don't care about protecting the voice call against wiretaps or determined attackers in Canada. There are laws in Canada to protect us against government wiretaps unless it's part of an investigation and signed off by a judge. I'm okay with that. If I really need to protect a call I'll use zrtp and not call a PSTN number.

What I care about is not having my calls all logged forever in a US data warehouse. Most voice calls using this service will travel through the US to get to your servers. As soon as they do they're available for logging provided it's not a US person making the call.

Instead I'd like to see all data sent to Fongo using encryption. Then I'd like assurances from Fongo that all data between your servers and the PSTN entry points is encrypted at least if it travels outside of Canada.

[Fongo Support]

I disagree. You can never have complete end to end encryption but that doesn't make it useless. For a voice call it will be decrypted on both ends. It's possible for someone to put a listening chip in everyones homes and listen to all the calls. Unlikely, but possible.

Instead you can encrypt the traffic along the risky part of it's path. When you say 'each end' you mean each system connected to the internet. This is fine if your looking to protect against anyone on the internet, but I'm not.

I don't care about protecting the voice call against wiretaps or determined attackers in Canada. There are laws in Canada to protect us against government wiretaps unless it's part of an investigation and signed off by a judge. I'm okay with that. If I really need to protect a call I'll use zrtp and not call a PSTN number.

What I care about is not having my calls all logged forever in a US data warehouse. Most voice calls using this service will travel through the US to get to your servers. As soon as they do they're available for logging provided it's not a US person making the call.

Instead I'd like to see all data sent to Fongo using encryption. Then I'd like assurances from Fongo that all data between your servers and the PSTN entry points is encrypted at least if it travels outside of Canada.

[bridonca]

Fongo uses industry standard SIP VOIP, in which nothing is encrypted, other than the login and password, so there is no way that Fongo can ensure the traffic is secure. Fongo could go to another standard, but that would break every SIP device out there. So that is not going to happen.

As for calls getting logged in the US, that is what happens when one uses the internet as a transport device. And sadly, if the conversation is encrypted or not, agencies can get a lot of useful information from that data. You do not have to like it, but that is the way it currently is.

I also have to mention that POTS is the most insecure part of the leg, that already gets shunted to the US, which allows it to be snooped. Most POTS calls are actually now VOIP calls. So again, I have to mention, any effort Forgo puts into encrypting their network is pointless. It breaks all the hardware, makes Fongo no money, and ends up not working anyway.

Hi guys,

I am locking this thread now as you are deviating from main subject and going no where.

Re- Please open a support ticket for this issue. I don't believe you can resolve or get answer to your question in the Forums.

Thanks,