Methods and apparatus for lawful interception of communications

A communication system comprising:

• a network communications device, through which communications pass to a target device, including:
• a storage device, accessible to at least one of i) an operating system of the network communications device or ii) an operating system administrator of the network communications device;
• a memory used by an active communications interception application executed on a first processor included in the network communications device;
• and
• said first processor configured to:
• store an encrypted first target identifier corresponding to the target device in the storage device;
• load the encrypted first target identifier into the memory;
• operate the network communications device to send a decryption request seeking decryption of the encrypted first target identifier to a security device;
• and
• operate the network communications device to receive an unencrypted version of the first target identifier and to load the unencrypted version of the first target identifier into a secure portion of said memory used by active communications interception application without making the unencrypted version of the first target identifier available to the operating system administrator of the network communications device, said secure area of memory being an area of memory which is not accessible to the operating system administrator of the network communications device.

A non-transitory computer readable medium including machine executable instructions which when executed by a processor of a network communications device, through which communications pass to a target device, control the network communications device to perform the steps of:

• storing the encrypted first target identifier corresponding to the target device in a storage device accessible to at least one of:
• i) an operating system of the network communications device or ii) an operating system administrator of the network communications device;
• loading the encrypted first target identifier into memory included in the network communications device;
• operating the network communications device to send a decryption request seeking decryption of the encrypted first target identifier to a security device;
• and
• operating the network communications device to receive an unencrypted version of the first target identifier and to load the unencrypted version of the first target identifier into a secure area of said memory used by an active communications interception application without making the unencrypted version of the first target identifier available to the operating system administrator of the network communications device, said secure area of memory being an area of memory which is not accessible to the operating system administrator of the network communications device.