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Lavabit.com Owner: 'I Could Be Arrested' For Resisting Surveillance Order

Posted by timothy on from the how-can-you-dare-to-say-that dept.

Zak3056 writes "NBC News is reporting that 'The owner of an encrypted email service used by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden said he has been threatened with criminal charges for refusing to comply with a secret surveillance order to turn over information about his customers. "I could be arrested for this action," Ladar Levison told NBC News about his decision to shut down his company, Lavabit LLC, in protest over a secret court order he had received from a federal court that is overseeing the investigation into Snowden.''"

3 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Federal prison by amoeba1911 · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, staying in public eye will do nothing. Despite all the brainwashing by the media, the majority of American public feels Snowden is a whistle-blower, not a traitor. Yet the government still pursues him as a traitor. There is a huge disconnect between government and people. The government no longer does what's best for the people, the government does what's best for the government at the cost of people. Revealing that the government does unethical things that harm the governed is considered treason. Eventually, speaking out against your government will become a crime as well.

  2. See: ISP owner who fought letter before by hazeii · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nicholas Merrill fought this battle before.

    His talk at 27C3 is very, very interesting and deserves to be more widely known. In particular, watch and listen to his explanations of how carefully he has to choose his words - right down to using "it" for the government person he has to deal with (since giving away "its" gendor could get him 10 years in jail).

    --
    All your ghosts are just false positives.
  3. No NO NO! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    That's simply not how it works.

    The Root CA creates a self-signed certificate. This is the 'axiom of trust', you have to import this and trust it.

    Then there are subsidiary certificates are that are SIGNED by the Root CA.
    What this means is the Root CA attests that the public key in the
    certificate truly belongs to the Entity named in the certificate.

    The Root CA NEVER SEES INTERMEDIATE PRIVATE KEYS.

    You can have a private key on a smart card that never, ever
    leaves the smartcard and still get your cert signed.

    You are very confused.