Secure Email Service Lavabit, a Snowden Favorite, Returns

Encrypted email service Lavabit returned to the Web last calendar week, afterward more than than three years since it went offline. For now, it'due south merely bachelor to those who had accounts prior to its shutdown Those interested to apply the service accept to pre-register.

SecurityWatch Lavabit returned on Inauguration Mean solar day, Lavabit owner Ladar Levison wrote in a note on the company's website, because "Regardless of one's political disposition, today we admit our shared values of Freedom, Justice, and Liberty every bit secured in our Constitution."

Lavabit made headlines in the summer of 2022 amid reports that NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, used it to email political officials with a asking for asylum in Russian federation. The service shuttered a month subsequently (equally did Silent Circumvolve'due south email) and then as not "to become complicit in crimes against the American people," Levison said at the time.

"In August 2022, I was forced to make a hard determination: violate the rights of the American people and my global customers or close down. I chose Freedom," Levison wrote on Friday. "Much has changed since my conclusion, but unfortunately much has non in our mail service-Snowden world. Email continues to be the heart of our cyber-identities, but as evidenced by recent jaw-dropping headlines it remains insecure, unreliable, and easily readable past an attacker."

Lavabit 2022 has a few new bells and whistles. In 2022, Levison used Kickstarter funds to develop the Nighttime Internet Post Environment (DIME)—an end-to-end encrypted global standard—and Magma, a DIME-capable costless and open source mail server. With the Lavabit relaunch, "we are releasing DIME and Magma to the globe," Levison shared.

"DIME provides multiple modes of security (Trustful, Cautious, & Paranoid) and is radically different from whatever other encrypted platform, solving security problems others fail," according to Levison. "DIME is the only automated, federated, encryption standard designed to work with different service providers while minimising the leakage of meta-information without a centralised dominance. DIME is end-to-cease secure, yet flexible enough to allow users to continue using their email without a Ph.D. in cryptology."

Everyone else can pre-register for Lavabit's next release. For a express time, 5GB of storage will be U.s.a.$15 per yr, while 20GB will be Us$thirty. Somewhen those prices will leap to US$30 and US$60, respectively.

"Anyone can access our gratis, open up source library, and associated command line tools capable of creating, and handling the new DIME standard," Levison said. "Anyone with a domain can deploy Magma or implement their ain encrypted DIME compatible server."