Lavabit and Silent Circle have joined forces to form the Dark Mail Alliance: a spy-proof email service that applies peer-to-peer encryption to both the body of your message and its metadata (at least, between Dark Mail accounts).
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When Lavabit shut down in the wake of Edward Snowden’s leaks, it left a big question unanswered: just what did the US government want that was supposedly so egregious? Thanks to newly unsealed court documents obtained by Wired, we now know much more of the story. The FBI had served Lavabit an order requiring that it hand over Snowden’s encryption keys, helping the agency install a device that would collect metadata from its suspect’s email connections. Lavabit repeatedly turned down the requests since it could have given access to data from every user of the service — at one point it did serve up the SSL keys, but printed out on 11 pages in 4pt type — which led to threats of criminal contempt charges and fines. We all know what happened afterward — company founder Ladar Levison chose to shutter Lavabit rather than comply with the FBI’s demands. While the new details aren’t shocking given the government’s desire to catch Snowden, they help explain Levison’s past statements; he felt that it was better to defend Lavabit in court than risk violating the privacy of his customers.
Filed under: Internet
Source: Wired
New details have emerged in the saga of Lavabit, the now offline secure email provider used by Edward Snowden. Apparently, the government tried (and failed) to strong arm the service into giving up its private SSL key, a major security concession that would’ve given Uncle Sam access to all user data.
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Remember Kolab? Groklaw dropped its name as a secure alternative to now-shuttered Lavabit after announcing its own demise. The Swiss company is trying to capitalize on the fresh notoriety, and has announced a lite version of its MyKolab secure email service. It skips the premium version’s calendars, tasks and other frills for half the price, about $5.25/month. There’s also a new file storage option for premium customers that offers 1GB of cloud space. Uploaded files can not only be viewed, but also attached directly to an email. And, if 1GB isn’t enough, you can always buy more storage. The company is located in Switzerland, where it can presumably resist NSA pressure to fall in line — so, if prefer your email with less PRISM, check the More Coverage link.
Filed under: Internet, Software
Source: Kolab Systems
Lavabit shut down its email services a couple weeks ago in response to governmental pressure regarding NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s account. At the time, founder Ladar Levison stated he was shutting down Lavabit because he didn’t want to “become complicit in crimes against the American people,” but didn’t expound upon what that statement meant due to a governmental gag order. The Guardian spoke with Levison recently, however, and while he still didn’t deliver details about his legal dealings with Uncle Sam, he did share some thoughts about governmental surveillance in general.
As you might expect, Levison is against ubiquitous governmental surveillance of communications between citizens. To that end, he’s calling for a change to be made in US law so that private and secure communications services can operate without being used as “listening posts for an American surveillance network.” He’s not wholly against the feds tapping phone lines, though, as he recognizes the role such surveillance plays in law enforcement. However, he thinks the methods that are being used to conduct that surveillance should be made public — not an unreasonable request, by any means. You can read Levison’s full take on the matter, along with a recounting of reasons behind Lavabit’s creation at the source below.
Source: The Guardian
When the government came knocking becayse Edward Snowden used Lavabit’s encrypted email service, it did the sensible thing and, uh, shut itself down
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The unfortunate side effect of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s email provider Lavabit pulling the plug rather than complying with the feds
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You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
It looks like Edward Snowden is going to have to find a new email service as the one he supposedly used — Lavabit — has abruptly closed its doors. The company’s owner, Ladar Levison, posted an open letter on the site today, saying, “I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit.” Levison also claimed to be unable to speak to the specifics surrounding the situation, stating that a Congressionally approved gag order prevented him from doing so. While Lavabit’s situation seems pretty dire, it might not be curtains just yet. In his message, Levison stated that he would take his fight to reinstate Lavabit to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. To read the missive in full, head on over to the source link below.
Filed under: Internet
Via: Boing Boing
Source: Lavabit
Users of the extra secure and private email provider Lavabit are out of luck after the owner shut down the service on Thursday offering only a cryptic message as an explanation. Lavabit is the preferred email service provider of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, and yes, this matters.
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