Slashdot Mirror
Heml.is, New Encrypted Messaging Service From Brokep of the Pirate Bay
First time accepted submitter freddej writes "Heml.is ("secret" in Swedish), is a new peer encrypted messaging service from some of the guys behind TPB and Flattr. They describe it as this: 'Our focus is your privacy so we are building everything from software to company structure to protect that. The others are focused on maximizing profit.' So if you agree on the mantra that 'if you're not paying, you're the product' then you might want to check them out."
Caveats: they are begging for money and there is no mention whether this will be Free Software or some kind of proprietary service (in which case, how can you really trust it?). It looks more likely it will be a closed application/service: "We're building a message app where no one can listen in, not even us. We would rather close down the service before letting anyone in ... [what will codes unlock?] It will give you access to extended features of Heml.is like sending image messages and other stuff in the future. Pre-register username will let you register your username before the app is released."
Sorry but I threw out all of my iOS/Android devices when Snowden blew that whistle.
Predicted this. First of many products that will try to offer security in lieu of ads after the Snowden leaks. I feel smart today. It's funding faster than a kickstarter... this gives me a page to refresh today instead of the dislikes on that Miley Cyrus video - good times that one.
Without going all "conspiracy theory" here, what if this is part of a secret arrangement with the secret police for each of the founders to get out of secret jail avoid the secret prosecution and additional secret jail time?
To paraphrase Admiral Ackbar, this could be an elaborate ruse. Realistically though? Its an excellent idea to cash in on the concept of the right to privacy.
- Nec Impar Pluribus, or so I'm told.
What good will this do if they've backdoored your device and are reading the keyboard input and taking screenshots?
There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
Many clients already support OTR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-the-Record_Messaging#Native
Many clients have plugins for OTR: http://www.cypherpunks.ca/otr/
Predicted this. First of many products that will try to offer security in lieu of ads after the Snowden leaks.
True. I am looking forward to more focus on security plugins and extensions to existing products. Been waiting years for mozilla Thunderbrid chat to get OTR up and running. Also, if any semi decent email encryption method that wants to be even moderately adopted really needs to be next to zero configuration for up-front use or it just wont catch on *at all* (like OTR is a good example, and Enigmail/GPG are defiantly not good examples). Let the ones that really care be able to dive into the configs, check fingerprints, confirm there is no MITM etc... I mean, it cant get any worse than what we have now - 99.999% plain text email traffic, now can it.
When you try to eradicate anything and fail you only succeed in make it stronger and more menacing.
It's true in medicine with antibiotics and bacteria, it's true in nature with mosquitoes and the various failed attempts to defeat their spread of malaria.
Skype was born from the technology to evade detection and network filtering (Kazaa).
First time I fire up Skype I couldn't believe the complexity of the networking it got into.
A close friend, who worked in networking with me, un-installed it immediately as it looked like a trojan at the network layer.
TPB people have learned some very hard lessons about evasion, law and staying alive online under extreme hostilities.
It'll be interesting to see what the next "Skype" will be and this could be either it, or one more step towards it.
This is borderline useless for the following reason, all the NSA needs is metadata. With metadata they can know a lot about you. They don't need the content of the message when they know who do you communicate with, what frequency, and whatnot. You already use the internet, they should be able easily to associate your IP with your identity. Unless you stop using cloud based services, this alone won't keep NSA in the dark about you.
You can encrypt it without a cert. You just can't be sure of a man in the middle attack.
Peter Sunde will run for European Parliament in 2014 election with Pirate Party of Finland. Quite impossible to think any intelligent person not voting for him.
Indeed his ideas on medical healthcare, social welfare, military spending and road infrastructure are renowned and undeniable.
Quite impossible to think any intelligens person would care for anything besides those particular issues.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
"You already use the internet, they should be able easily to associate your IP with your identity. "
only if you are a complete fool and use your home internet for most things.
they cant find me in the noise of a starbucks connection.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I agree 100 per cent. And I must add that all these so called crypto or secure apps that don't hide the fact of connections are absolutely unsafe. If the FSB (KGB, Russian equivalent of NSA) can compile my contact list they can just torture the content out of them. There is a specific Russian term - "rectothermal cryptoanalyzer" (meaning the hot soldering iron to suspect's anus).
BTW: Hemlis is suspicious because the usernames must be preregistered. The really secure app should have no any central server for the registration info. The admins of such server can be too easily tortured to disclose or stop everything.
Is this a joke?
If what you do in the various Starbucks venues is even slight statistically related, you can rest assured that there are automated methods to identify you.
I predict most of them will be broken, and not generate or exchange keys competently.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Unless you go to the trouble of changing your wifi mac address and many other uniquely identifying signatures of your computer and the software it runs, you can very easily be found and tracked inside your starbucks. Considering you probably have a smartphone in your pocket with an always on wifi radio, too, you can probably be very easily tracked all around town all the way back to your house for someone with the resources and determination to do so.