CONFERENCE
Lawful intercept
Sales director of guest
internet provider
Airangel Dean Wilkinson
warns that new Lawful
Intercept legislation in
force since March brings
serious implications for
the conference industry.
Wi-Fi provision is now widely
accepted as a vital service
among conference venues,
hoteliers and others in the events industry.
Increased interest in social networking
sites and the emerging 24/7 working
culture which Blackberries and other PDAs
have brought about, have made Wi-Fi an
important and often lucrative service
offering. But do you know who’s making
use of your Wi-Fi services?
For the most part no, but as of 15 March
new legislation demands that if you offer
Wi-Fi services you should know who’s
using them and what they’re looking at.
Called Lawful Intercept, the directive
means that you must keep records of all
the communications that take place over
your venue’s internet connection and
attempt to identify and record the user. For
conference venues and organisers, this
means retaining the information of all
communications made by delegates.
The directive is a response to the
heightened use of the internet in
organised crimes such as data theft,
paedophilia and, in particular, terrorism,
and is designed to reduce the associated
risks for society as a whole. The required
information must be collected, stored and
made available for authorities to access at
any time including the police, health
authorities, council and government.
Whose responsibility is it?
So why isn’t it enough that your internet
service provider (ISP) collects and stores
this information on your behalf? In truth,
this just doesn’t afford you enough
protection and while the penalties of not
complying aren’t yet known, the potential
risks to your brand reputation and image
make it an issue that can’t be ignored.
Take for example a haulage company. If a
haulier’s lorry was caught speeding on the
motorway, it wouldn’t be the company that
would be liable for a fine or penalty, it
would be the driver of that lorry. The
management would be able to identify the
driver of that particular lorry by checking
their records to see who had what lorry on
what day.
The same thinking applies to your
business under the Lawful Intercept
directive. If a haulage company will pass
the authorities onto the speeding driver,
so too will ISPs to your business.
In real terms, this means that your
business is responsible for knowing
who accesses the internet or emails via
your server and requires you to store
information on user IDs, IP addresses
and the date and time of
communication. They should be able to
trace the source of communications,
times and locations of equipment and
the nature of the communication. This
information has to be stored for up to
two years.
FEATURE
Wilkinson: ‘Do you know who’s making use of your Wi-Fi services?
How do I protect my business?
There are some straightforward steps
which can be implemented quite readily.
Firstly, in addition to speaking with your
ISP, you should seek advice from your
other IT partners, be they IT help desks or
W-iFi and guest internet access providers.
These companies can ensure your
system is Lawful Intercept compliant as
part of their service and take the hassle
out of the process for your business and
your staff. Make sure you get
comprehensive advice and find the best
solution to fit your needs.
Other suggestions include linking
delegate registration and other datacapture
systems to your tracking logs to
ensure compliance. By making sure you
capture as much information about your
delegates’ identities when they register or
log on to your internet network, you are
going some way to meeting these
obligations.
Critics of the legislation argue that the
validity of this information is questionable
as those engaged in criminal activities will
use false identities to evade detection.
However, while this may be true, those
operating in the events industry have an
obligation to comply and a duty to protect
their brands and reputations.
Contact Airangel at www.airangel.com or
T. 08707 667 516
CONFERENCE NEWS JUNE 2009 45
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