Encryption

Another One Bites the Dust: Silent Circle Shuts Down Encrypted Email Service

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There are some very high profile people on Silent Circle—and I mean very targeted people—as well as heads of state, human rights groups, reporters, special operations units from many countries. We wanted to be proactive because we knew USG would come after us due to the sheer amount of people who use us—let alone the “highly targeted high profile people.” So to protect everyone and to drive them to use the other three peer to peer products- we made the decision to do this before men on [SIC] suits show up. Now—they are completely shut down—nothing they can get from us or try and force from us- we literally have nothing anywhere.

– Michael Janke, CEO of Silent Circle

The recent big news in the tech world was that Lavabit, the encrypted email service used by Edward Snowden to communicate, was forced to shutdown by the U.S. government. In typical American gulag fashion, Lavabit was not permitted to tell the world about their six week battle with the “authorities” and the specifics related to the shutdown. While some of you may take this development negatively, I would argue it is all just part of the natural process of system change outlined by Gandhi, a master of the process. He said:

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

We are merely in the fight phase. This is thanks to the Edward Snowden leaks, which made the “ignore and ridicule” phase no longer possible. It’s becoming increasingly obvious which side is winning, which is why the establishment is showing such desperation. Even back in June, polls showed that Edward Snowden was far more popular than both Barack Obama and Congress.

More on the Silent Circle drama from ArsTechnica:

Less than 24 hours after Lavabit shuttered its doors, another US firm is shutting down its encrypted e-mail service.

Silent Circle, a company that specializes in encrypted communications, said it is preemptively turning off its Silent Mail product. It’s doing so despite no urging at all from the government—no subpoenas, warrants, security letters, or anything else, company co-founder Jon Callas wrote in a blog post today. “We see the writing on the wall, and we have decided that it is best for us to shut down Silent Mail now.”

Company CEO Michael Janke told TechCrunch that given his user base, he knew the government was going to come after them sooner or later:

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Search Engine “Duck Duck Go” Experiences Traffic Surge in Wake of NSA Scandal

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The tremendous positive impact from Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations will only be properly appreciated in the years and decades ahead, but I believe they will be extraordinary. In fact, we are already seeing many of them. From the recent halt on the CISPA bill in Congress, to the forced exposure of authoritarian shills in the mainstream media as they struggle to publicly defend the NSA. However, perhaps the most significant long-term impact will be the resulting boom in the privacy business.  If you recall, I wrote a piece titled Bitcoin and Kim Dotcom: Why it’s Time to “Encrypt Everything” a couple of months ago.

In what I think is great news, the alternative, “non-tracking” search engine Duck Duck Go has seen a surge in traffic since the NSA scandal was revealed.  As was noted in a Guardian article from today: “If the NSA demanded data from DuckDuckGo, there would be none to hand over.”  More on this fascinating trend below:

Gabriel Weinberg noticed web traffic building on the night of Thursday 6 June – immediately after the revelations about the “Prism” program. Through the programme, the US’s National Security Agency claimed to have “direct access” to the servers of companies including, crucially, the web’s biggest search engines – Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.

Within days of the story, while the big companies were still spitting tacks and tight-lipped disclaimers, the search engine Weinberg founded – which pledges not to track or store data about its users – was getting 50% more traffic than ever before. That has gone up and up as more revelations about NSA and GCHQ internet tapping have come in.

Using it is very definitely an active choice, whereas using Google is the default option on most browsers. And 95% of people never change the default settings on anything.

But this 20-person business offers what none of the big search engines do: zero tracking. It doesn’t use cookies or store data about its users’ IP addresses, doesn’t offer user logins, and uses an encrypted connection by default.

 If the NSA demanded data from DuckDuckGo, there would be none to hand over.

Having decided that searching is intimately personal, he deduced that governments would want to get hold of search data. “I looked at the search fiascos such as the AOL data release, and decided that government requests were real and would be inevitable, and that search engines and content companies would be handing over that data [to government] in increasing amounts.”

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Introducing Strongbox: Aaron Swartz’s Last Project

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I remain haunted by the death of Aaron Swartz.  In fact, his passing is still one of the first things I mention to people when I want to provide an example of how out of control and drunk on power the government is.  The incredible accomplishments he achieved in his short life are nothing short of extraordinary, and the fact the feds mercilessly attacked him and drove him to suicide epitomizes the unfortunate rapid decline of our culture and civilization. Amazingly, Aaron continues to bless the world with gifts from his brilliant mind even after his passing.  In this case I am referring to Strongbox, an encrypted and more secure way of providing information to journalists.  It was a project Aaron was working on with Kevin Poulsen before his death and was launched by the New Yorker a few days ago.  From Techdirt:

The New Yorker has announced a new anonymous document sharing system called Strongbox, that will allow people to anonymously and securely submit documents to reporters from the New Yorker. Other publications have tried to set up something like this — often inspired by Wikileaks — but for the most part, they’ve been full of security holes, sometimes big and serious ones. What may be more interesting than the fact that this system is being set up is the story behind it. It’s based on DeadDrop, an open source system that was put together by Aaron Swartz and Kevin Poulsen. 

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Interview #3 with Blacklisted News: A Deep Dive Debate on Bitcoin

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I really had a ton of fun recording this interview a few days ago with the always excellent Blacklisted News.  We engage in a lively debate about Bitcoin, which should prove particularly interesting to those that are on the fence about the crypto-currency.  Doug is a skeptic and plays devil’s advocate on many occasions. That … Read more

Bitcoin and Kim Dotcom: Why it’s Time to “Encrypt Everything”

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Encryption may end up being the biggest trend in 2013, as the concept, usage and term itself move from the realm of computer geeks and hackers into mainstream consciousness.  The reason why such a moment must occur relates to the fact that governments and intelligence agencies the world over are rapidly moving in the direction … Read more