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Mike Shaver Moves to Zero-Knowledge
Mike Shaver, who recently left the Netscape/AOL conglomerate, has apparently landed a job with Montreal-based Zero Knowledge. The press release has more details, but it appears that Zero Knowledge is privacy company which promises the ability to post, browse and all those good things anonyomously. Mike will be their Chief Software Officer, while continuing to work on Mozilla as time permits.
Cool. I bet that will be a great job. I wish I could move to California and joing up with their company. Wouldn't that be cool to work for Mike Shaver???
kwsNI
zero knowledge is a great crypto scheme (imho). I don't see how it quite pertains to this, though :P
.sig: File not found.
ls:
ls:
(A)bort, (R)etry, (I)gnore?
So he's the bill games of the company?
Mike will be their Chief Software Office
He must be a pretty big guy!! *rimshot*
can be found here. The interesting part is this:
The Zero-Knowledge software works using three servers, located at leased sites in scattered locations worldwide. Client software encrypts Internet access requests and information using three layers of public-key encryption software. Each of the three servers only knows part of the information needed to identify a user and the contents of an Internet session. Even Zero-Knowledge itself doesn't know the identity of the owner of particular pseudonyms, so it can't divulge that information if subpoenaed.
Of course implementation is everything, but I'm all in favor of any step towards ubiquitous encryption and pervasive privacy.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
Oops. Sorry - It's join not joing. I guess I should get out Hooked on Phonics. :)
kwsNI
Right below you have Mozilla getting PKI source, and then you have an ex-Mozilla going to Zero Knowledge. Why is this significant? ZK is the maker of the aptly named "Freedom" (from privacy invasion) software, which acts as a very interesting model of secure internet access. White papers are here, and they've truly redefined (or is it defined) a new model for providing inet access privacy. I wonder if Mike Shaver's old ties at Netscape/AOL would help in the distribution of Freedom...
"In individuals, insanity is rare, but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule." -Nietzsche
But who is this Mike Shavers guy and why does he warrant a story? Is he someone Malda had lunch with? I'm very serious. I want to know who he is?
Thanks.
Hates people who have stupid little sigs
Operating System:
Windows 95, Windows 98
Internet Connection (Modem or LAN-based) using standard Microsoft TCP/IP
Obtained from freedom.net webpage.
But if you are on Win9x, Freedom is great--fully anonymous surfing, email, telnet, whatever. With the paid version ($50) you can set up five "nyms," which each store their own set of cookies. You can use different nyms for different purposes, accept all the cookies and don't worry about it, no one will have any idea who you are. There is even an option to pay by anonymous money order.
Also:
"empowers Internet users to surf the Web, send email, post to newsgroups and IRC chat in total privacy."
Right now spam, and to a lesser extent, e-mail hoaxes and threats are an ongoing problem. I can see this software as a possible tool for spammers and hoaxers. Once again, does a person have legal recourse in a situation where an anoymous person has spammed them?
--
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"Insert witty quote here."
Warining: this post may contain sarcasm Anonymous users on the internet? I can't believe the U.S. government would allow such a thing. Congress should get their ass in gear and stop this immediately. Absolute freedom such as this is a terrible idea. As Dubya said, "there ought to be limits to freedom."
Hmm, kinda sounds like the idea of laundry.org in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon to me. cheers. k
This is great for those concerned about protecting their anonymity. The Zero-Knowledge model is just about the best out there, working similarly to chained remailers. Provided Zero-Knowledge has actually implemented what they claim--and done it well--this is perhaps the best way to secure your right to free speech.
Hiring someone with expertise on a multi-platform application like Netscape was an excellent move. The only reason I don't use this is because the Zero-Knowledge client currently runs only on Win9x, with versions for other OSes to be released "real soon now". Hopefully, this should significantly jump-start those efforts, bringing anonymity to people who refuse to run an insecure OS.
"...it appears that Zero Knowledge is privacy company which promises the ability to post, browse and all those good things anonyomously."
cool!! so, does this mean he will be joining us trolls here on slashdot?!?!?!
thank you.
Why does a particular person joining a particular company suddenly warrant a Slashdot article?
Are we to expect Slashdot to track all the movements of individual ex-Netscape employees in future?
Can we have more news and less gossip please?
An Internet privacy product creates a public stir
BY VINCE BEISER
Austin Hill wants to make Web surfers invisible. With the Internet increasingly becoming a place where people's movements and personal information are tracked, logged, bought and sold, Hill's Montreal-based company, Zero-Knowledge Systems Inc., is set to launch a product that will conceal all cyber-wanderings. "Right now, the Net is like a street with a camera on every corner. Everything you do leaves a trace," says Hill, Zero-Knowledge's 26-year-old president. Law enforcement agencies, employers and hackers can easily monitor e-mail and online chat; corporate Web sites gather information on visitors, then resell it to marketing companies. Zero-Knowledge's Freedom software will prevent that by encrypting every communication a user sends.
Scheduled for commercial release late this year, Freedom is already generating a buzz among Silicon Valley venture capitalist and privacy advocates. But it is also unsettling law enforcement officials, who warn that the privacy software will make life easier for virus makers, pedophiles and other online miscreants. FBI chief Louis Freeh recently told the U.S. Senate that the widespread availability of strong encryption products will "devastate our capabilities for fighting crime, preventing acts of terrorism and protecting the national security." Brent Pack, a so-called hacker hunter with the U.S. army's computer crime investigation unit, agrees. "Our job is hard enough," he says, "without adding any additional hurdles."
There already are anonymous Web-surfing services and e-mail encryption programs on the market. Freedom, however, is the first to bundle these functions in a single user-friendly application. Though it is still being tested, "the idea," says Bruce Schneier, one of the industry's leading cryptography experts, "is fundamentally sound."
It works by stripping all data leaving a user's computer of identifying information -- be it e-mail, chat-room gossip or requests for Web pages -- then wrapping it in several layers of 128-bit encryption, currently considered unbreakable. The data is then routed through a series of randomly chosen servers, each of which unwraps one of the encryption envelopes to find where to send the packet next. That means no single server knows both the origin and destination of the packet. (Even Zero-Knowledge won't know which data packets connect to which users, hence, the company name.)
Freedom allows users to create up to five pseudonymous identities, none of which can be traced. This sits nicely with privacy advocates. "The police would have a much easier time if they could enter your house or read your mail any time they wanted," says David Jones, president of Electronic Frontier Canada, a cyber-rights group. "Why should e-mail be any less deserving of protection than a letter sent by Canada Post?"
Hill, too, is a longtime believer in individual freedom -- especially his own. He quit high school at 15 to start a career as a computer security consultant. At 21, with the help of his older brother Hamnett, he co-founded what is now TotalNet Inc., one of Canada's largest Internet service providers. After selling that venture for a hefty profit, the brothers founded Zero-Knowledge in 1997, along with their father, Hammie, a corporate accountant.
Overseeing Freedom's development is star hacker and Toronto native Ian Goldberg, 26. In recent years, he has made headlines by cracking the digital security system used by Netscape's Navigator and another used by many wireless phones, including Canada's Fido Network.
While the demand for Web privacy is widespread and while the technology may be solid, the question remains: will people pay $75 to buy Freedom? Austin Hill is confident they will. The number of employees at Zero-Knowledge's loft-like headquarters on Montreal's now-hip Boulevard St. Laurent is projected to zoom from 50 to 110 in the next few months, and at least 50,000 volunteers have signed up to test Freedom's new release. "We don't expect overnight success," says Hill, "but we expect it quick."
Wow, you're a great example of why morons shouldn't be allowed to reproduce.
I'd love to hear you say that outside of your lilly white suburb, homes.
The press release has more details, but it appears that Zero Knowledge is privacy company which promises the ability to post, browse and all those good things anonyomously.
APPARENTLY? There have been tons of stories about these guys ever since they began offering the beta and it should be no suprize at all to anybody that follows security just a little bit.
Check their own site for stories that go back for months, including ZDNET, the Wall Street Journal, CNNin, C|Net, Newsweek, InternetNews, The Village Voice, Wired, Time.com and the list goes on for 2 very long pages.
Yea, the new suit part might be news, but the what it "apparently" does part is old now.
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
Things like ZKS make me wonder about what we are striving for in terms of privacy. There is the "real" world and the digital world -- is one meant to be an analogue of the other? Obviously, we want privacy because we don't want the digital world to be worse than the real world in certain ways. For instance, if we didn't encrypt credit card data during transactions, the digital world would be broken compared to the real when it comes to purchasing. Similarly, I want to be able to secure documents that I send to someone so that they are at least as good as taking certain "security" measures in the real world (registered mail, envelopes that aren't transparent, etc).
There seems to be a distinction between the desire for online security (which seeks to emulate the security we can find in the real world) and the desire for online privacy (which seeks to surpass the real). There is no real-world equivalent to what ZKS proposes. If I walk down the street, people may not recognize me (unless they know me), but I clearly have an identity -- I can be distinguished from someone else on the street by a third-party observer, even though the observer may not be able to identify either of us. ZKS would allow me to walk down the street and appear identical to everyone else -- not just nameless, but faceless.
Obviously, a lack of privacy dehumanizes; but couldn't an overabundance dehumanize as well? I'm interested in where exactly we're going with all this.
Funny that, to get your internet "freedom" using Freedom.net, you have to be using the products and OSes of the software company in the world most opposed to freedom :-)
Gerv
From what I've heard, they implement a limit on e-mails per day per user which would not be noticed by an ordinary user but would pretty much prevent spam. I'm not certain how they'd deal with threats and hoaxes.
:^) Seriously, we tried HARD for a while to use a credit card to buy a set of 'nyms -- without success -- for a LONG time. There are other payment options that they should consider, among them e-gold. (Go ahead, moderate me down, this is a blatantly self-interested comment but I needed to say it.)
I like the company, they've hired some very smart and very nice people, but I wish they'd be more forward-thinking regarding efficient payment options.
JMR
Try e-gold - (contact me). I'm NOT e-
There is no other explanation as to why anyone would post meaningless bullshit like this. Who gives a fuck? Who is Mike Shaver? What the fuck has he done for me recently?
I mean, I was recently made head floor mopper at the McDick's that I work at, but do I get mention on Slashdot? NO, probably because I stopped sending Jeff Bates $500 checks long ago after I found out that he blows them all at Indian casinos and whorehouses rather than paying the heating bills like I told him to. Now look whose freezing his pasty white ass off! Looks like that's the last time you'll ever think twice again!
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Hemos's Mommy
Worst. Name. Ever.
Seriously, what kind of marketing wizard decided to name the company "Zero Knowledge". It sounds like a synonym for "Know Nothing." "Yeah, I know there are a lot of smart companies out there that we could work with, but that's so cliché -- we should team up with them Zero Knowledge guys!"
Cheers,
ZicoKnows@hotmail.com
NOTHING is stopping the porn guys now and all your ignorant, police state enabling, shake in your boots attitude will do is prevent free people from staying free. it will prevent those enslaved to remain enslaved.
go ahead and drop off the keys to your house at the police station because you have nothing to "hide", I will keep mine thank you and you will need a warrant to look in my home
RETARD
I asked them about a linux client in December. They said one would be available in the first half of this year, but that they could not pin the date down better than that.
THATS WHY NETSCAPE AND ITS BASTARD PROGENY SLASHDOT SUCK SO MUCH, BRAH!!!
MORE PORTMAN TITS ON FRONT PAGE, PLEASE!!!!
We, the the socialist Linux users of the world demand that Linux license everything that is encrypted into the swap space be licensed under the BSDL. Only by doing this can free health care, and the elimination of poverty be realized in the United States. Otherwise we will we be stuck in the 20th century forever.
So, it's a double entendre: crypto in-joke, and also how much info you spread, accidentally, while using Freedom.
This business model will last until the [religious group name goes here] break down the door with a court order like they did with the anonymous Finnish remailer.
I actually came across ZKS several years ago when they first started publicizing the product. IIRC, this was how they addressed these concerns.
Each user has a pseudonym. If that pseudonym causes problems, it can be revoked, forcing the spammer to sign up again to spam again. Not really that much different than what any other ISP does, except that it is harder to prevent them from signing back up again.
Law enforcement issues: A packet can be traced by going to the first server in the chain and getting a subpeona for its logs, which will point to the next server in the chain, eventually pointing back to the sender. This would be problematic since the servers can be in different countries, but still theoretically possible. ZKS did not start up to make life easy for law enforcement, but to protect people from anyone, including law enforcement, who encroach on the their privacy.
There certainly will be abuses of ZKS, but that holds true of any system. The issue is whether or not a person should be allowed to interact with society on an anoymous level. I say yes. Police caught and convicted criminals long before there were DNA tests. They will still be able to do so without a trail of bloody footprints leading to the spammers door. If we give people tools such as ZKS, they can defend themselves from being attacked by spammers in the first place, rather than retaliating after the fact.
The software is very nice, although the connections are a bit slow over your average modem (understandably). Unfortunately, for me that limitation meant I couldn't use it, and I was forced to return my product.
On the bright side the company was very easy to deal with, and I suggest the product for anyone that doesn't have to deal with a lan as well as the internet.
Oh yeah, and of course the first version only runs on windows. :)
Pretty cool, but it *is* annoying that you're limited to a pop client. But, if you don't want to use pop, you can still use public email services, as they won't be able to see your actual ip address, because you're hidden behind the freedom servers.
I am posting this from a public terminal at the RSA2000 Conference, where Ian Goldberg (Zero Knowledge's chief scientist) is scheduled to talk tomorrow.
I've got his session scheduled... I plan to grab some of the "best" questions from this thread on Slashdot and corner Ian afterwards and see what he's got to say. I'll post the results of my quest here tomorrow after the session, if anyone is interested.
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Question: How do I leverage the power of the internet?
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There is no try at jedinite.com
all you pieces of caca dissing mike because you are ignorant pieces of turd are maggots. i think i met you in a baton rouge gas station bathroom once. you had wings and were pure white, and some of your sibs had morphed to full-on fly status. what have you done lately, besides whine?
...and apparently no room for growth. once you attain conviction that you 'know' something you have limited yourself. Someone on slashdot made a comment recently along the lines of 'your proctologist called- they found your head'. i love it! you live it!
Go Rams!!!!!!!!~~~~~>>>>>.....
This easily the funniest comment of the week.
There's an mp3 from a previous talk at the 1999 Ottawa Linux Symposium here. Very good information!
Freedom works in two ways as I understand it. First as an encrypting freedom-routing client at the IP layer of your TCP/IP stack and second as an HTTP proxy that plugs into your TCP/IP stack.
This means that it should already work with Mozilla. Anybody tried it?
Zooko
Coming to an MS product near you..
Seriously don't we already have the capability to do things anonomously (this post for example)?
He might not sign it, but by god, he will shave it!
... post!
Both the mozilla project and Zero Knowledge were at the Ottawa Linux Symposium. Did that have any role in the move? I ask, because it will tell us all whether there is anything in these sorts of OSS trade shows except for vacations. (And, I must state most emphatically, not because I think such vacations would be bad: even if they turned out to be only geeks-relaxing-together-in-the-sun [ok, in the dark, but whatever], they'd be worth it.)
From the article Cloak-a nd-Dagger on the web:
ITS SAD BUT TRUE, BRAHS!!!
HE WAS SNORTED UP COWBOY NEAL'S 24INCH SCHLONG!!!!
And here's a funny bonus pic of a Gargoyle Woman.