Foundation Projects
Outstanding Research in Digital Development: University of Waikato / Searchlight NZ
University of Waikato (UOW) and Searchlight NZ
The University of Waikato working with Searchlight New Zealand are a recipient of a 2024 ISIF Asia award for Outstanding Research in Digital Development for their work on Open Lawful Intercept (OpenLI). They received their award on September 4, 2024, at the APNIC 58 Conference in Wellington, New Zealand.
Each awardee received travel support (if they are based outside New Zealand) to attend the conference and 5,000 USD to assist with their work.
Network Operators in jurisdictions around the world are required to comply with requests from their government to intercept certain types of data in a highly specific manner, as part of legal investigations.
For many Network Operators, conducting these intercepts in an appropriate manner is a very challenging and often costly task because conventional, proprietary, lawful intercept systems are expensive to buy, technically challenging to understand and can be difficult to manage. For smaller economies and providers this substantial overhead that does not contribute to customer services.
The University of Waikato and Searchlight team worked on an open source, lawful intercept alternative (OpenLI) and then proceeded to engage with the Pacific community to discuss their needs and how the system could be adapted. They also worked with members of the Pacific Islands network operator and law enforcement communities to provide in-person and online training and support for Lawful Intercept deployment and operation.
The full awards ceremony, including the discussion of their work is, embedded below.
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