Secure E-Mail Services Shuttered over Fears of Government PRISM Reprisals

[Zeno Swijtink]

Opinion, arguments & analyses from the editors of Scientific American

Secure E-Mail Services Shuttered over Fears of Government PRISM Reprisals
By Larry Greenemeier | August 9, 2013 |

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Image courtesy of Bev Sykes, via Flickr

Revelations of the U.S. National Security Agency’sPRISM program continue to have worldwide ripple effects. Nearly two months after U.S. federal prosecutors charged NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden with espionage and theft of government property for blowing the lid off of the clandestine surveillance program, the company that secured Snowden’s electronic communications with journalists and international officials has shut down its encrypted e-mail services.

Texas-based Lavabit LLC announced August 8 that it was suspending operations due to unspecified legal pressures. The move prompted another company, Silent Circle, to likewise drop its own encrypted e-mail service on August 9 before becoming the target of similar legal scrutiny. Meanwhile, concerns over the NSA’s snooping have prompted the opposite reaction in Germany, where two of that country’s biggest Internet service providers—Deutsche Telekom AG and United Internet AG—say theywill now encrypt customers’ emails by default.

In a note posted to Lavabit’s homepage, owner and operator Ladar Levison suggested that a long, secretive turn of events led to his decision to scuttle the service. “As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests,” the site says. He also notes that, a “favorable decision” by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals would allow him to “resurrect Lavabit as an American company.”

Continues at https://blogs.scientificamerican.com...ism-reprisals/