Lavabit, email service Snowden reportedly used, abruptly shuts down

Who can we call right now?

Blaming Obama for our governments Snowden backlash is about as misguided as believing there was going to be some real change by electing him. Our two party system provides candidates that have been vetted and approved by the powers behind the curtain. Wake up and $mell the democracy.

That’s the worst part for me. I really did have hope.

When you call them be sure to speak in code.

No, I want to them to hear what I’m saying.

"The core problem is that Lavabit got their security model wrong. With their scheme, the encrypted private key is stored on their servers, which means that the government need only demand that the unencrypted password for a user be logged somewhere whenever that user logs in, and then the government has access to all emails, past and present.

Such a model is not significantly more secure than an unencrypted mail provider, because anyone capable of compromising the machine can capture that passphrase, and then the entire security model comes down like a house of cards. The only situation in which your data is more secure with such weak encryption is if you happen to not log in to the account while the server is compromised. Therefore, the only way to protect the users’ data is to shut down the servers so that they cannot log in.

Had they used a more paranoid security model—a proper client-side app to generate and store the keys and perform all decryption—then the private key would be stored on the user’s machine, and would never be seen by the server. In that case, the only thing the government could do would be to demand that new messages to a particular user be stored off to the side in the clear, and it would not be possible to gain access to any existing messages."

Also see:
http://steve.grc.com/2013/08/08/the-lesson-of-lavabit/

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Take a breath, have a shot if you’re so inclined, and make a plan. Everyone on this board better call you representative and senator tomorrow. My rep is one of those money sucking sleazes in the pocket of the spies and government contractors.

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I like Lavabit even more now. I guess you have to run your own server now if you want any privacy.

The presiding judge of the secret court

Secret courts are despotic. What is a free country doing with secret courts?

This makes me want to smack the next person in the mouth who sings The Star-Spangled Banner and blurts out “land of the free”. Please skip that part, it’s a lie.

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Now that you mention it, postcards seem pretty secure relative to an indexed searchable database of communications.

And, we sure as hell don’t want to use envelopes because that clearly means we’re terrorists who have something to hide.

Lavabit users looking for a free privacy-conscious electronic communication web app may be interested in ThreadThat dot com.

And here we thought Lettres de Cachet were killed off by the guillotine. I guess that didn’t stick.

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Could someone please explain why this post is tagged as “promoted”?

Oh, crap.

“Home of the brave” is also a lie. A substantial fraction (perhaps even a majority) of the US approves of this government surveillance. Why? Because they’ve bought the line that it’s needed to keep us safe from terrorists.

Or, more succinctly, because they’re afraid.

It’s not “land of the free and home of the brave”, it’s “land of the watched and home of the cowed”.

Many people object to the subsequent need to go on the lam, live in a Russian airport for weeks on end, and appeal to various odious strongmen for asylum.

In other words, Atlas shrugged.

Mmm, yeah, pretty sure you accused him(?) of being a pussy.

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I hope companies like Google and Microsoft will do that. They have sufficient funds to battle the government in court until they win. They will win because what the US government is doing here is pretty illegal

“Home of the brave” is also a lie.

Agreed.

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