Live data from Hacker News

Two Providers of Secure E-Mail Shut Down

bits.blogs.nytimes.com

11–20 of 72 posts

Re: Two Providers of Secure E-Mail Shut Down

#11
Obama is willing to deprive his constituents of their bread and butter to enforce surveillance. Un. Fucking. Believable.

This is in no way Schadenfreude, but it does provide an opportunity for countries with more transparency, or less appetite for strong-arming their people.

Re: Two Providers of Secure E-Mail Shut Down

#12
How did Silent Circle become a "major secure email service provider?" Lavabit launched in 2004. Silent Circle launched "Silent Mail" four months ago.

I don't see how SC's action belongs in the same sentence as what Lavabit was forced to do.

Re: Two Providers of Secure E-Mail Shut Down

#13
post #5

Reminds me of when they took Megaupload down. There was a domino effect where a lot of torrent and file sharing sites decided to pack their things and go home. First the file sharers, then the secure emails. I wonder who's going to be next? The reddits? The HNs?

I think it's just going to lead to decentralization. More, smaller fish.

I think you're absolutely right. The only effect that NSA/... (and let's be honest, any other country is just jealous they don't have the capabilities of an NSA :p) has on the Internet community is going to be a wider and further proliferation of darknets, P2P and F2F services.

Re: Two Providers of Secure E-Mail Shut Down

#14

" Mike Janke, Silent Circle’s chief executive, said in a telephone interview late Thursday that his company had destroyed its server. “Gone. Can’t get it back. Nobody can,” he said. “We thought it was better to take flak from customers than be forced to turn it over.” That guy has brass balls. It may very well be that this will be interpreted as obstruction of justice, there is a specific element in there about destr…

I wonder if they destroyed it before it was part of an investigation? It may have been preemptive to avoid that scenario when the Feds eventually did come knocking on the door.

Edit - yes that looks to be the case. From their blog: We see the writing the wall, and we have decided that it is best for us to shut down Silent Mail now. We have not received subpoenas, warrants, security letters, or anything else by any government, and this is why we are acting now.

Re: Two Providers of Secure E-Mail Shut Down

#15

" Mike Janke, Silent Circle’s chief executive, said in a telephone interview late Thursday that his company had destroyed its server. “Gone. Can’t get it back. Nobody can,” he said. “We thought it was better to take flak from customers than be forced to turn it over.” That guy has brass balls. It may very well be that this will be interpreted as obstruction of justice, there is a specific element in there about destr…

What he did was equally an act of heroism (in face of Internet history) and stupidity (in face of his own life). Perhaps, he should just have wiped and destroyed the disks, and have it "seemed like a system crash at a bad timing" caused it :)

Re: Two Providers of Secure E-Mail Shut Down

#16
This is why I setup my own email server...

Here is a great guide for anyone interested: https://www.exratione.com/2012/05/a-mailserver-on-ubuntu-120...

I set mine up on CentOS 5 using this guide. I would recommend you also look at DKIM signing and SPF records to improve deliverability! :)

Re: Two Providers of Secure E-Mail Shut Down

#18

" Mike Janke, Silent Circle’s chief executive, said in a telephone interview late Thursday that his company had destroyed its server. “Gone. Can’t get it back. Nobody can,” he said. “We thought it was better to take flak from customers than be forced to turn it over.” That guy has brass balls. It may very well be that this will be interpreted as obstruction of justice, there is a specific element in there about destr…

Why would it be if there was no on going investigation that they were made aware of (officially)? I think they are smarter than that. This seems like a pre-emptive move.

Re: Two Providers of Secure E-Mail Shut Down

#19
post #9

It's a victory of NSA-US govt. over the efforts of EFF and similar organizations. We must continue this fight to safeguard our future. Here are two free and secure email providers who keep themselves up only by donations: 1. https://openmailbox.org 2. https://autistici.org

SSL errors on the 2nd... seems... worrisome.

Re: Two Providers of Secure E-Mail Shut Down

#20
post #16

This is why I setup my own email server... Here is a great guide for anyone interested: https://www.exratione.com/2012/05/a-mailserver-on-ubuntu-120... I set mine up on CentOS 5 using this guide. I would recommend you also look at DKIM signing and SPF records to improve deliverability! :)

email is not encrypted... they'll just have your hosting provider or ISP copy your email when it's received/sent
Post reply on HN