Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

CryptoSeal Shuts Down Consumer VPN Service To Avoid Fighting NSA

Posted by Soulskill on from the another-one-bites-the-dust dept.

sl4shd0rk writes "CryptoSeal Privacy, a VPN provider, has closed down its consumer VPN service. The company says it has zeroed its crypto keys, adding, 'Essentially, the service was created and operated under a certain understanding of current U.S. law, and that understanding may not currently be valid. As we are a US company and comply fully with U.S. law, but wish to protect the privacy of our users, it is impossible for us to continue offering the CryptoSeal Privacy consumer VPN product.' The announcement ends with a warning: 'For anyone operating a VPN, mail, or other communications provider in the U.S., we believe it would be prudent to evaluate whether a pen register order could be used to compel you to divulge SSL keys protecting message contents, and if so, to take appropriate action.' Sounds like another victim of FISA-endorsed NSA activity."

10 of 361 comments (clear)

  1. This NSA crap is much too much, and ungentlemanly by Austrian+Anarchy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Back in the old spy days, the gentlemanly thing to do was crack the other guy's encryption, NOT beat his keys out of him. This is just cheating, pure and simple.

    --
    Time Bomber the Book coming soon.
  2. Time to start by ugen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Sounds like it's high time time to start a VPN provider in SeaLand (or what do we have left that's not firmly in jurisdiction of governments with grubby hands and long noses)?

    1. Re: Time to start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Looks like Brazil is growing a pair.

  3. DoS? by dex22 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What is to stop the NSA doing a form of DoS attack on these types of services by demanding keys, and giving the services little option but to shut down?

    The effect of this is to remove secure competitors from the market and force users onto pre-compromised services.

    1. Re:DoS? by Teckla · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The effect of this is to remove secure competitors from the market and force users onto pre-compromised services.

      I know this is going to sound mighty odd, but hear me out...

      I kind of wish the NSA sold things like consumer routers, for which they wrote all the firmware, user interface, etc.

      The NSA employs Really Ridiculously Smart People, so then I could count on my router being really, really secure against everyone and everything... except the NSA.

      Which would be an OK trade-off for me, and I think would be an OK trade-off for a lot of people...

    2. Re:DoS? by myowntrueself · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That will work until the US Congress passes a law similar to FATCA which compels foreign businesses to turn over financial records involving US persons. So far, few if any foreign countries have attempted to defend their sovereignty to protect Americans. I doubt much will change when it comes to data.

      It matters very little anyway. Because the 'big money' is in corporate accounts and corporate data. You and I, as individuals, can't wave a magic legal wand and move ourselves offshore. Corporations can. And that's who the people running offshore banks or data services cater to.

      What FATCA is achieving is that many non-US financial institutions are turning away customers who are US citizens; they won't have their money, don't want their custom. And many of these US citizens are giving up their US citizenship because of this. There are millions of US citizens around the world who are experiencing this financial blacklisting because of FATCA, especially in the EU.

      --
      In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
  4. Re:Sorry... by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You are not going to have much advanced IT business left over there soon if this goes on.

    I think we are witnessing the (not very) slow disintegration of the principals and reality of the American Internet. Whether the internet itself will survive this is another matter.

    --
    May the Maths Be with you!
  5. Re:Sorry... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We all knew this would happen. As soon as the government saw that the Internet was an opportunity and / or threat, they would work to get it under their control. Actually took them a bit longer than I expected, although the NSA-style snooping has likely gone on longer than we realize.

    Nothing to see here, move along.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  6. A different objective? by duke_cheetah2003 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Maybe the US Government's objective here is not collect data from these types of services like LavaBit, SilentCircle or whoever else has shuttered in fears (or actual) of being tapped by the NSA.

    It's starting to feel like to me the objective isn't the data, the objective is the services. This is denial of service. Denial of crypto services by the US Govt.

    I just can't really see why they would put the pressure on so blatantly. It's like they're sending a clear message to all of us, no more crypto services, we're going to find you and tap you so you're are ineffective, or shut down.

  7. Re:This NSA crap is much too much, and ungentleman by sconeu · · Score: 4, Interesting

    First Lavabit.
    Then Groklaw.
    Now CryptoSeal.

    Who's next?

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.