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Lavabit abruptly shuts down

lavabit.com

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Re: Lavabit abruptly shuts down

#41

Post by raganwald »

onli wrote: post #28
lmkg wrote: post #15

For the unfamiliar: Lavabit was a webmail service, that (claimed to) encrypt emails in such a way that they literally did not have access to the content stored on their own servers. The linked email would lend some credence to those claims. It was originally designed in contrast to gmail scanning your email for targeted advertising, but my imperfect memory says that their system should also have been resilient to "we…

And this reads as if someone was trying to force him to install means to spy on his users, and it wouldn't be surprising if the aim was to spy on Snowden directly (if he really used this service).

It may be simpler than that. Even if Snowden has walked away from this service, the publicity may have attracted a lot of people the authorities find interesting, including legitimate (whatever that means) persons of interest.

Re: Lavabit abruptly shuts down

#42

Post by tenpoundhammer »

Sounds like any country willing to guarantee a snoop free environment could have a lot of servers hosted there. I'm thinking the Caymen islands of data. Set up a shell company and a shell server in the Caymens to protect your money and your customers.

Re: Lavabit abruptly shuts down

#43

Post by junto »

grey-area wrote: post #37
RyanZAG wrote: post #24

I'm in the process of moving any Saas offerings I use off USA-affiliated companies, but it's actually more difficult than I first thought. I believe there might even be a very profitable market in simply duplicating the functionality of Saas offerings at a higher price with security/privacy guarantees in Germany/HK/etc. Might be the next hot business to be in? You'd be surprised as to the number of people seeking alt…

I'd love to believe that the authorities in Germany are not also tapping lines like France or the UK. Do we have any proof that is the case? I agree this has made me think twice about hosting in the us, but also about crossing national boundaries full stop without encrypting traffic.

The difference is that the authorities in Germany don't have the legal framework to force someone to do this and threaten them to stay silent.

Re: Lavabit abruptly shuts down

#44

Post by ToastyMallows »

ck2 wrote: post #21
rsync wrote: post #9

Time to donate to the EFF. They haven't been branded as a terrorist charity yet, AFAIK...

The head of the NSA branded them as "the next terrorists". http://www.salon.com/2013/08/06/cyberscare_ex_nsa_chief_call...

> “nihilists, anarchists, activists, Lulzsec, Anonymous, twentysomethings who haven’t talked to the opposite sex in five or six years”

Now that's a generalization if I ever heard one.

Re: Lavabit abruptly shuts down

#45

Post by wmf »

RyanZAG wrote: post #24

I'm in the process of moving any Saas offerings I use off USA-affiliated companies, but it's actually more difficult than I first thought. I believe there might even be a very profitable market in simply duplicating the functionality of Saas offerings at a higher price with security/privacy guarantees in Germany/HK/etc. Might be the next hot business to be in? You'd be surprised as to the number of people seeking alt…

Somebody call the Samwer brothers!

Re: Lavabit abruptly shuts down

#46

Post by marssaxman »

computer wrote: post #34
lmkg wrote: post #15

For the unfamiliar: Lavabit was a webmail service, that (claimed to) encrypt emails in such a way that they literally did not have access to the content stored on their own servers. The linked email would lend some credence to those claims. It was originally designed in contrast to gmail scanning your email for targeted advertising, but my imperfect memory says that their system should also have been resilient to "we…

It wouldn't be resilient to interception of mail going to and coming from lavabit however, since email is essentially a plaintext public protocol.

...which is why you encrypt the contents before you send it, yes?

Re: Lavabit abruptly shuts down

#47

Post by Karunamon »

Are there any countries, anywhere, where a person can store data outside the reach of the US government's illegal overreach?

Any countries friendly to the US are right out. They can tap the lines, but there are ways around that.

I just want to be able to park data where some twit with a piece of paper that says "NSA" on it can't get it retrieved or deleted. Any suggestions?

Re: Lavabit abruptly shuts down

#48

Post by Theory5 »

Well, that's it. I am now going to move everything onto my own infrastructure. I signed up for lavabit a while back, and I like them as a secondary email service; and now they just shut down!

Re: Lavabit abruptly shuts down

#49

Post by devindotcom »

computer wrote: post #34
lmkg wrote: post #15

For the unfamiliar: Lavabit was a webmail service, that (claimed to) encrypt emails in such a way that they literally did not have access to the content stored on their own servers. The linked email would lend some credence to those claims. It was originally designed in contrast to gmail scanning your email for targeted advertising, but my imperfect memory says that their system should also have been resilient to "we…

It wouldn't be resilient to interception of mail going to and coming from lavabit however, since email is essentially a plaintext public protocol.

What? I don't think this is true at all. Plaintext data, email or not, can be protected with robust encryption. Your end security is the main consideration, but that has nothing to do with the protocol or content, really.
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