Friday, May 23, 2014

Secrets, lies and Snowden's email: why I was forced to shut down Lavabit...

My legal saga started last summer with a knock at the door, behind which stood two federal agents ready to to serve me with a court order requiring the installation of surveillance equipment on my company's network.

My company, Lavabit, provided email services to 410,000 people – including Edward Snowden, according to news reports – and thrived by offering features specifically designed to protect the privacy and security of its customers. I had no choice but to consent to the installation of their device, which would hand the US government access to all of the messages – to and from all of my customers – as they travelled between their email accounts other providers on the Internet.

But that wasn't enough. The federal agents then claimed that their court order required me to surrender my company's private encryption keys, and I balked. What they said they needed were customer passwords – which were sent securely – so that they could access the plain-text versions of messages from customers using my company's encrypted storage feature. (The government would later claim they only made this demand because of my "noncompliance".)

Bothered by what the agents were saying, I informed them that I would first need to read the order they had just delivered – and then consult with an attorney. The feds seemed surprised by my hesitation. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Do you need the world's most secure e-mail?
  2. Lavabit's Ladar Levison on Snowden, why he shut down, and how to beat...
  3. Owner of Snowden's email service on why he closed Lavabit rather than...
  4. Silent Circle and Geeksphone create privacy-focused Blackphone...
  5. Darkmail opens: New email encryption standard aims to keep government...
  6. Mega to fill secure email gap left by Lavabit...
  7. 'I used to think US best country for privacy & freedom' - Lavabit founder...

No comments:

Post a Comment