By Katharine Fong
President Obama talked today about the National Security Agency's electronic surveillance efforts and Americans' privacy concerns, but the buzz in the cybersecurity world centered on two major email encryption services' decision to close down yesterday.
What does the shuttering of Texas-based Lavabits (reportedly used by Edward Snowden) and the email encryption services of Maryland-based Silent Circle mean? The New York Times Bits blog says it signals that emails, "even if they are encrypted, can be accessed by government authorities and that the only way to prevent turning over the data is to obliterate the servers that the data sits on."
(Indeed, Lavabits destroyed its servers, much to the consternation of some of its users.)
"This raises the question of whether anyone can realistically offer an online encryption service that promises confidentiality," said Kurt Opsahl, senior staff attorney for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation.