Posted on 08/11/2014 1:45:39 PM PDT by SovereignSociety
Its been a busy month on the privacy front.
For starters, word got out on August 5 that Russian hackers stole 1.2 billion user names and passwords across several kinds of websites. Then Facebook got into hot water again when it decided to force its risky Messenger app on unwilling users. Meanwhile, a U.S. senator warned that users of wearable fitness-tracking devices are unprotected by any privacy law, putting them at serious risk. And the European Union is poised to counter a U.S. court order demanding Microsoft hand over data stored inside its Irish servers.
Meanwhile, hackers and snoops gathered last week at their annual Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, plotting how to beat our best security efforts.
I was also a busy bee. I decided to start using a secure password-generation and management software, called Dashlane, which works across multiple devices. It was getting to the point where I had so many passwords to remember that it was seriously cutting into my productivity.
And I was at risk, because the natural tendency when you have a lot of passwords to remember is to re-use them on multiple sites. Thats a BAD idea.
But I also did something Ive been doing every week for months now checking to see whether I had been accepted by the worlds most secure email service, ProtonMail.
When Edward Snowdens revelations broke last year, it sent shockwaves through CERN, a particle physics laboratory in Switzerland. A young MIT PhD student working there expressed concern, and soon 40 of the smartest physicists and computer programmers on the planet were pooling their knowledge to found ProtonMail, a Gmail-like email system which uses end-to-end encryption, making it impossible for outside parties to monitor messages sent back and forth.
These are the guys and gals who discovered the Higgs Boson. They are Einstein-level smart. Unlike all other encrypted email services, ProtonMail separates the encrypted message from its encryption key. All the encryption takes place on your computer and the receivers computer. Neither message nor key are stored on ProtonMails servers, so theres no way for government to get their hands on them, even with a court order.
But that still wasnt secure enough for this group. ProtonMail decided to go the extra mile to ensure absolute security. They placed all their servers in Switzerland, which has some of the worlds toughest privacy laws. Thats why Im on a waiting list demand for ProtonMail is so high that there arent enough available servers in Switzerland to accommodate it. But the group is currently raising money to build more.
ProtonMails founders clearly understand that security and privacy is about more than encryption the decision to base their service in Switzerland demonstrates that they get the politics part, too.
But politics has a way of resisting evasion.The Governments Fight Against Your Right to Privacy
In June, PayPal the same U.S. money-transfer company that blocked contributions to Julian Assanges WikiLeaks at the U.S. governments behest froze ProtonMails funds and blocked all further contributions, without notice or explanation. All this after ProtonMail had launched a two-week crowdfunding campaign with a set a target of $100,000, collecting more than $300,000 in a few hours.
Why would PayPal do such a thing? Andy Chen, the MIT PhD student who dreamed up ProtonMail, explained that, When we pressed the PayPal representative on the phone for further details, he questioned whether ProtonMail is legal and if we have government approval to encrypt emails.
That was a seriously stupid answer on PayPals part. It just reinforces the fact that American tech companies are increasingly an extension of the U.S. government, and so cannot be trusted with anyones business. Because its a voluntary step by PayPal, its much worse than a federal courts order that Microsoft unwillingly turn over the contents of its Irish servers.
This isnt the first time PayPal has closed an account out of deference to government. Regulations by the U.S. Department of Treasurys FinCEN unit require financial organizations to monitor accounts for illegal activity, in essence deputizing private companies to act as monitors. These regulations tend to cause companies such as PayPal to freeze perfectly legal accounts in overzealous lock-downs like the ProtonMail fiasco.Come Together
ProtonMails experience ties together a number of strands weve written about a lot recently. In my Offshore Confidential report this month, I discussed the great opportunity presented by the iAccount, an Internet-based eWallet service, precisely because its based in China, where the U.S. government cant snoop or confiscate funds.
Last week, my colleague Chad Shoop wrote about the great investment opportunities presented by the rush to create and market secure communications technology like ProtonMail. And as I write, Im working on another major report on steps you can take to secure your privacy.
The common element in all of these topics is this: you cannot trust the U.S. government or the U.S. private sector to protect your privacy against the growing threat. You need to look elsewhere and were committed to showing you exactly where.
Kind regards,
Ted Baumann
Offshore and Asset Protection Editor
“Neither message nor key are stored on ProtonMails servers, so theres no way for government to get their hands on them, even with a court order.”
Hahaha! That’s exactly what someone looking to get access would want you to believe.
The truth is, the NSA can intercept traffic from one point to another along the internet, they don’t need to pull the mail directly from any server. Or, they could just hack into one of the user’s computers and install spyware. Then they could get the passwords from a keylogger, or get screenshots of the mail as the user read them.
There is no such thing as absolute security if you are plugged into a public network, and anyone who tells you different is misleading you.
When a communist country is seen as a safer haven for privacy and financial security, maybe it is a time to take a serious look at yourself. Kind of like when your bartender talks to you about joining AA.
I’m waiting for StatMail to go public.
https://beta.startmail.com/
The worst of it is companies are being forced to (cooperating) hand over personal information including profiles to the feds and are being protected by gag-orders.
Nothing is safe online, not even TOR. Your emails and browsing habits are scanned and profiled. Even Amazon shopping is profiled for the FEDS.
One week after buying hydroponic equipment for a hobby, I found two Sheriffs in my 5 acre wooded backyard claiming to be investigating smoke — which was an obvious lie as it stormed heavily recently and everything was soaked. They were actually in the fenced portion.
“government approval to encrypt emails.
This is the problem - thinking that the all powerful government can approve or disapprove use of email.
When we pressed the PayPal representative on the phone for further details, he questioned whether ProtonMail is legal and if we have government approval to encrypt emails.
What effin business is it of yours, the givernment or anyone else how I communicate?
Louis Lerner must have Proton.
You don't think that the NSA has 'Einstein-level' cryptologists and mathematicians? They're fooling themselves.
PGP was the best military grade encryption available to the average consumer. I'm sure the NSA can probably break that by brute force or other methods. Anything built by man can be undone by men.
Yes, they have the best - they can afford them.
PGP encrypted email is easily identified therefore for sure will get intense examination and logging from the NSA or whoever regardless of whether or not they decide to invest the resources to crack the message.
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