And this is how committees fail to achieve results ;)
The top 20 (?) comments (or at least the most voted comment thread) is a discussion/argument on just the name...
Announcing The Dark Mail Alliance – Founded by Silent Circle and Lavabit
161–170 of 217 posts
Re: Announcing The Dark Mail Alliance – Founded by Silent Circle and Lavabit
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hmmm, I don't know if I'm being outrageously paranoid, but I'm resisting the temptation to put my PGP private key on my iPhone - because it'd be _way_ too easy for Apple to extract the key/passphrase if they were coerced by someone powerful enough, and those "powerful enough" have shown that they consider a court order granting them the private key used to secure 400,000 people's email is an appropriate tool when tar…
It's good to be paranoid - but if you don't trust Apple -- you'll have to be quite paranoid with your (and every other) iPhone you encounter. After all they might be recording all sound within range of the mic, for example. Or all text typed. Or both. AFAIK Apple is close to best in class when it comes to handling secure information (keys, pins etc) -- even if they're not perfect.
My assumption is that if the NSA takes a specific interest in _me_ - then Apple and/or Google could be requested/coerced into making any iOS or Android device I was suspected of carrying do that.
If I held a top security clearance in a country the US was interested in, or was a politician, diplomat, drug-dealer, or Occupy Movement organiser - I wouldn't be happy using a modern smart phone.
As a "nobody", I doubt the NSA would burn those resources on monitoring me.
On the other hand, I wouldn't be _too_ surprised to find the NSA take special interest in anybody who's downloaded a PGP/GPG app from the App Store or Google Play - and if I worked for the NSA I'd certainly have entertained the idea of working out how to subvert iOS/Android to expose private keys and passphrases using privileged vendor-provided OS access.
And I doubt I'm anything like as smart/creative/evil as the best people working at the NSA…
(And Apple definitely talk best-in-class talk about secure data handling, but there are some interesting questions about how your old passwords/iMessages/keys re-appear on a new iOS device when you replace them…)
Re: Announcing The Dark Mail Alliance – Founded by Silent Circle and Lavabit
#163I hope to see this magic new mystery protocol as something similar to TextSecure, where we have forward secrecy from the OTR protocol. The current e-mail protocols are far too centralized, which doesn't make sense. Mail is delivered, and after that, it is no longer in possession of USPS. This is unlike how E-mail works (even though it kind of seems like that's what happens). I hope to see some kind of client being re…
The protocol is based on SCIMP[0] which supports forward secrecy.
Re: Announcing The Dark Mail Alliance – Founded by Silent Circle and Lavabit
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
I totally agree, I really think you should change the name. Some suggestions: - Locke Mail [from John Locke] - Mill Mail [from John Stuart Mill] - Hobbes Mail - Liberty Mail
Freedom \ Liberty \ Patriot \ Constitution Mail would be very effective in blocking political speeches and biased headlines from cheap attacks. My personal favorite is Lincoln Mail... Seems highly appropriate on many levels and should be FOX News proof.
RMail (short for ReaganMail). The optics of hacking it would be similar to burning a pile of bibles in the Reagan Library.
Re: Announcing The Dark Mail Alliance – Founded by Silent Circle and Lavabit
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Well, Bob, as your viewers may know, 'Smith Mail' came out of a group that calls themselves 'The Dark Mail Alliance'. This is a group of anti-government hackers that..."
"... keep their software in a so called 'subversion' repository, clearly for nefarious ends."
"... it's worse than that. They used git. They can git your kids, git your job, git your family; all with one command. They can even clone you. These hackers will be pulling and pushing this country apart!"
Re: Announcing The Dark Mail Alliance – Founded by Silent Circle and Lavabit
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
I totally agree, I really think you should change the name. Some suggestions: - Locke Mail [from John Locke] - Mill Mail [from John Stuart Mill] - Hobbes Mail - Liberty Mail
Liberty Mail seems cheesy and try-hard.
And would work well on the type of people who respond to that. No one brand will get everyone, repackage and relabel for each target demographic.
Re: Announcing The Dark Mail Alliance – Founded by Silent Circle and Lavabit
#167As much as I hate promotion emails, I do hope they make sure that companies can still send mass "dark mails" securely, rather than sending the one by one...
Wait wait wait! Requiring very strong encryption may help make spam email computationally infeasible. That alone might be worth it!
Nope, doesn't work. Most of spam today is sent trough compromised computers (botnets), so requiring more CPU work doesn't do anything (other than increase the world power consumption a tiny bit).
Re: Announcing The Dark Mail Alliance – Founded by Silent Circle and Lavabit
#168My Fucking Mail would be a better name. As in, it's mine, do fucking not read it. Sorry for the profanity but I think it fits how many people feel about this.
I do share your sentiment! The shorter "MyMail" makes the same point without needing the profanity, and your more emphatic name would then be available for the most desirable MyMail client...
MyMail sounds like a Microsoft product.
Re: Announcing The Dark Mail Alliance – Founded by Silent Circle and Lavabit
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes please reconsider the name. I would go with something like 'sealed mail' and imply the imagery of how in the olden days mail was sealed with a wax stamp. A strong visual analogy can be very powerful.
I like the name 'Locke Mail' for that very reason.
Without searching I have no idea what that is supposed to mean. I guess it is something related to free speech in the USA? I might remember it from school.
What I am implying is that it seems like a localized term and people elsewhere might have no connotation(?) to it. In German the word means a curl of hair.
Re: Announcing The Dark Mail Alliance – Founded by Silent Circle and Lavabit
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
Freedom \ Liberty \ Patriot \ Constitution Mail would be very effective in blocking political speeches and biased headlines from cheap attacks. My personal favorite is Lincoln Mail... Seems highly appropriate on many levels and should be FOX News proof.
Some of those suggestions lose their punch when moved to a non-American context. I'd argue that the name should work on the assumption that it is the defacto standard, and so there is no need to distinguish between "normal mail" and "new mail". It should also contain a possessive pronoun. (Something like "YourMail", if not already taken?). With such a name, when someone attacks the mail service it will be difficult t…
Not only lose their punch, most of them sounds untrustworthy and cheesy in a non-American context, as we are very much used to Americans tacking on "freedom" or "liberty" to disguise the opposite.