FBI demands SSL Keys from Secure-Email provider Lavabit in Espionage probe

During the summer, The Secure email provider 'Lavabit' and preferred service for PRISM leaker Edward Snowden decided to shut down after 10 years to avoid being complicit in crimes against the American people.

The U.S. Government obtained a secret court order demanding private SSL key from Lavabit, which would have allowed the FBI to wiretap the service’s users, according to Wired.

Ladar Levison, 32, has spent ten years building encrypted email service Lavabit, attracting over 410,000 users. When NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was revealed to be one of those users in July, Ladar received the court orders to comply, intended to trace the Internet IP address of a particular Lavabit user, but he refused to do so.

The offenses under investigation are listed as violations of the Espionage Act and Founder was ordered to record and provide the connection information on one of its users every time that user logged in to check his e-mail.

The Government complained that the Lavabit had the technical capability to decrypt the information, but that Lavabit did not want to defeat its own system, So on the same day, U.S. Magistrate Judge Theresa Buchanan ordered Lavabit to comply, threatening Lavabit with criminal contempt.

FBI's search warrant also demanded all information necessary to decrypt communications sent to or from the Lavabit email account redacted including encryption keys and SSL keys.

But because Lavabit hadn’t complied till August 5, and a court ordered that Levison would be fined $5,000 a day beginning August 6, for every day he refused to turn over the key. 

On August 8, Levison finally decided to shut down Lavabit. “I’m taking a break from email,” said Levison. “If you knew what I know about email, you might not use it either.”

Fear of NSA PRISM : Indian Government may ban US email services for official communication

The Indian Government is planning to ban the use of US based email services like Gmail for official communications to increase the security of confidential government information.

The recent disconcerting reports that that India was being spied upon by American intelligence agencies has opened an all new chapter in the cyber security space. As leaked by former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, that NSA involved in widespread spying and surveillance activities across the globe.

The Government plans to send a formal notification to about 500,000 employees across the country, asking them to stick to the official email service provided by India's National Informatics Centre, Time of India Reported.

The fact that several government officers in top positions use their Gmail IDs for official communications i.e. Several senior government officials in India, including ministers of state for communications & IT Milind Deora and Kruparani Killi, have their Gmail IDs listed in government portals as their office email.

Last week, India's IT minister Kapil Sibal revealed that the new policy will enforce rules such as use of static IP addresses, virtual private networks and one-time passwords for accessing Indian government email services on all Indian officials who are stationed abroad.

“All Indian missions will use NIC servers which are directly linked to a server in India and that will keep government information safe.” Sibal said.