Slashdot Mirror
Lavabit Case Unsealed: FBI Demands Companies Secretly Turn Over Crypto Keys
jest3r writes "Lavabit won a victory in court and were able to get the secret court order [which led to the site's closure] unsealed. The ACLU's Chris Soghoian called it the nuclear option: The court order revealed the FBI demanded Lavabit turn over their root SSL certificate, something that would allow them to monitor the traffic of every user of the service. Lavabit offered an alternative method to tap into the single user in question but the FBI wasn't interested. Lavabit could either comply or shut down. As such, no U.S. company that relies on SSL encryption can be trusted with sensitive data. Everything from Google to Facebook to Skype to your bank account is only encrypted by SSL keys, and if the FBI can force Lavabit to hand over their SSL key or face shutdown, they can do it to anyone."
Understandable that he shut down.
The USA is ruled by evil bastards that have no respect for the citizens.
Time to revolt is now.
I don't see why they would want the SSL key, when presumably they have easy access to the data on the servers under the laughable "due process" already in place. Why would they want to intercept the traffic when they could just read it off the server?
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
How is this legal? How do you get a warrant that broad? Are fishing expeditions now allowed by law enforcement?
In all fairness their first request was horseshit. The idea that the metadata of email even encrypted email is not protected is already so outlandish as to be nearly unbelievable. We now know we live in a police state.
This judge is either willingly part of this bullshit or the most naive SOB that ever lived when he believed the FBI would only take the information the warrant allowed. If you give them the ability to get more they will take more.
Umm in a police state Lavabit would have never existed in the first place.
We are in one of those times where the US government is over-reaching their powers under the Constitution. It isn't the first time.
Time to wake up folks. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
All police states have to start somewhere and letting lavabit operate while holding the keys to it is one hell of an observation tool.
I am aware this is not the first time, but like before we will need something major to wake people up.
If we are to chose a single country, then probably US is the best option (at least if you are not a brown person). Nations are generally divided in two bunches: US sockpupets that can be used for things even the US does not want to be seen doing (hint: like Canada) and totalitarian dumps who's leaders would gladly murder just about anyone that threatens their access to power. So a common counterargument is that we either end up with US, or someone much worse.
But it does not have to be that way. An international agreement drafted by the major industrialized nations with an eye towards freedom of expression and democracy could be a much better deal than a single nation calling the shots. One important provision in such a treaty would be banning spying of international traffic passing though domestic lines. Nations would still be tempted but if caught it would justify international sanctions like a connectivity embargo. Imagine that, the first country with a closed internet would not be Iran, but USA. And the closure will come from the exterior. Quite a sensation on Nasdaq.
Anyway, don't get your hopes up, the way things work in the UN, there will never ever by a sanction against US, because it along with select few can veto any such action.
How is a user who just reads considered "abusive" to Slashdot? Treat Tor like any other open proxy, giving it read-only access.
When I was growing up (70s and early 80s), all the US propaganda about how bad the Soviet Union was, how bad East Germany was, in terms of privacy, citizen rights, and being police states.
"Hypocrisy!", in my opinion.
In my opinion laws should protect non-suspect citizen rights, and enforcement agencies (FBI in this case) should be legally required to only target and restrict their levels of privacy breach to only those individuals or organizations of inquiry. They should have no legal authority to make such demands, and if a company or citizen gets such a demand, the FBI should be able to be publicly sued for attempting to exceed their authority.
AND, if the FBI currently is allowed to do such dragnets, the laws should be amended to remove such authority, and be enforced.
Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
the US gets the press, but every country is doing as much as they can (and are able to) with the money and network taps they have in place.
this is human nature. the dark side of human nature.
at least its out in the open, now. what we do with it, as a species, is up to us. do we put our data thieves (ie, the government) behind bars or do we just say 'I have nothing to hide!' and let them continue along with their abuse and theft of our privacy?
there is no country that won't do this, no matter what they say. so stop thinking its the big bad old USA. its everyone, everywhere, who CAN do it. companies includes (your corp firewall and your corp provided laptop probably has built-in certs from the company)
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
there is no country that won't do this, no matter what they say. so stop thinking its the big bad old USA. its everyone, everywhere, who CAN do it.
Qualitatively, yes you're probably right. Quantitatively, not so much. It's like the military. Every country, or almost, has one. But only the USofA spends about as much on "defense" as the rest of the planet put together.
PS Capitals, used with some restraint, go a long way to making heads and tails out of a sentence.
Gosh, thanks. That must be why the other ships call me Meatfucker -- GCU Grey Area (Eccentric)
It's not limited to just SSL. Any company that holds a copy of your encryption/decryption keys (a public certificate is OK, the matching private key that goes with it is the problem) can be ordered to turn them over. The only safe system is where the keys that secure the system never leave your possession.
For e-mail that means using S/MIME or OpenPGP with a self-signed certificate and a private key you generate yourself. For encrypted documents, the same. The e-mail and documents need to be encrypted on your end before they leave your computer. Be aware that if you're encrypting messages to someone else the security will be controlled by their handling of their keys. You're encrypting using their public key, there's no security implications from disclosure there. However, if the recipient's using a service where the provider has a copy of their private key (used to decrypt messages to them) then messages can potentially be eavesdropped on by outsiders who've compromised the provider and gotten the key. Be aware of this aspect and make sure you know how recipients are handling their own security.
Yes, the above means any and all web-based or hosted services are automatically vulnerable no matter how they're designed. The only secure systems are ones where you, or software running on your computer and that you control, does the encryption and decryption and the private keys are never disclosed to any other party.
Basically, the government can force you to do anything it wants, and there's nothing you can do about it. Strange, I remember hearing about some document that spelled out certain limitations on the governments powers, and certain rights that people had, but I must have misremembered.
Because I'd prefer my employer not to know my /. UID?
Never ask "why do you want privacy"; that's always a stupid question. Privacy is simply an integral part of the two prime human goals: liberty and dignity.
This is a fundamental mindset change that's needed in developers! We've learned to write software that uses the least possible privilege, as the core of security. We need to learn to write software that offers the most possible privacy, as the core of human rights.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
I live in Ireland. I can pretty much guarantee you of three things.
1) The state lacks the expertise to snoop on any communications.
2) The state lacks the legal clout to force anyone to turn over their encryption keys.
3) The government would likely not survive the closure of an IT SME such as Lavabit -- and loss of associated jobs -- which resulted from direct government interference in that company's ability to operate in Ireland.
The rules that apply to the US government do not apply to every government. Some governments lack the skills, laws, and nerve to pull off what the White House/NSA is doing to US internet companies right now. More governments simply lack the money to pay for so extensive a network of surveillance and control.
That can includes more than simply being ABLE to do it. It includes being EMPOWERED to do it, being PERMITTED by the people to do it, and to being able to AFFORD to do it. Right now the US government is able, empowered, but only just about permitted and certainly not able to afford to continue to finance a spying program of this magnitude.
The Soviet Union exhausted both its finances and legitimacy in trying to keep its populace under control. Hopefully the US will not have to go through as painful a breakup in order to reverse its present trend.
May the Maths Be with you!
Go start your revolution. Do whatever you think that entails.
Or, if you aren't willing to do that, because revolutions are messy and often as not end up worse than what you had, kindly shut the fuck up.
I will not be joining you because while I feel the US has not been moving in a positive direction as of late, I feel that the solution to fixing it involves using the democratic process, not violent revolution, since I understand how nasty those are and also have a perspective on how good the US has it overall.
I get really tired of whiny, usually anonymous, basement dwellers playing toughguy on the net, decrying the US and saying we need to "revolt" or "rise up" or some BS. You aren't going to do that and you know it. So you are just being a douchebag, whining and complaining, suggesting that others should do the dirty work.
So put up or shut up. If revolution is really what you think is needed, get on that then. Though you might want to research a little as to what often happens to revolutionaries, and to countries after. If you don't, then STFU about it. Less whine, more action.
In fact, you will probably find that if you and other like you spent less time whining and more time working to affect actual change in the country within the system we have, things might start getting better.