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posted by martyb on Monday July 21 2014, @05:09PM   Printer-friendly

Wired reports that Ladar Levison (of Lavabit fame) hired the convicted ex-hacker Stephen Watt to create DarkMail — a set of protocols and servers which apply a similar approach as onion routing to the email metadata (sender and recipients) and would still enable the existing email clients go "dark".

The internet is littered with burgeoning email encryption schemes aimed at thwarting NSA spying. Many of them are focused on solving the usability issues that have plagued complicated encryption schemes like PGP for years. But a new project called Dark Mail plans to go further: to hide your metadata.

The project has made for an interesting pairing between Texas technologist Ladar Levison and convicted hacker Stephen Watt, whom he's hired to help develop the code. Both have had previous battles with the government in very different ways.

The project is composed of several parts: an email client called Volcano; server software called Magma Classic and Magma Dark; and the Dark Mail, or Dmail, protocol, which they're designing to replace existing protocols for sending and retrieving email that don't hide metadata.

"If you trust your server, you can use Outlook and the server will handle everything for you," Levison says. "The preference would be that you use the Dark Mail client, but I understand that this is not even a possibility for some organizations."

Dark Mail is modeled loosely on TOR — The Onion Router... With Dark Mail, there are primarily two main servers involved in an email transaction: the sender's domain and the recipient's. And although the sender's server can identify the source from which the email was sent, it doesn't know the recipient, just the recipient's domain. The server at the recipient's domain decrypts the "to:" field to deliver the correspondence to the right account, but doesn't know who sent the email — just the domain from which it came.

Seems like in the today's society one need to rely on outlaws to claim back some freedom (as in: being an honest citizen is no longer enough to guarantee it).

 
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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Alfred on Monday July 21 2014, @05:16PM

    by Alfred (4006) on Monday July 21 2014, @05:16PM (#71894) Journal

    It is one thing to be a hacker, maker, inventor or whatever.

    But to be a convicted hacker is beyond awesome. I would hang the court documents on a wall like a degree.

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  • (Score: 2) by Sir Garlon on Monday July 21 2014, @05:42PM

    by Sir Garlon (1264) on Monday July 21 2014, @05:42PM (#71903)

    I agree. Nothing says "trust me with you sensitive data" like prison tats!

    --
    [Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
    • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 21 2014, @08:21PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 21 2014, @08:21PM (#71981)

      You forgot to add stretched ass hole.

  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 21 2014, @06:24PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 21 2014, @06:24PM (#71923)

    This obsession with being a "badass" that young people have is sad. If people want to worship assholes, fine. But don't come crying to me when you life turns out shit because you tried to be a bad ass and got what you deserve. Try being a decent person and watch how things just fall into your lap. Good jobs, good friends, good wife. Remember that $500/hr drug dealing job is not so much when you add all the hours you spend in prison. More like $0.25/hr. You can make a difference in the tech world without being an asshole. Many of the OSS crowd are not and have not been in jail. They have changed the world. What have you done for the world? What will you do?

    Be Good! Be Cool! Be Decent!
     

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Blackmoore on Monday July 21 2014, @07:09PM

      by Blackmoore (57) on Monday July 21 2014, @07:09PM (#71950) Journal

      i know i know.. don't feed the troll.

      I'm a nice guy. at least i hear that a lot. what does it get me? Friends, some sense of self worth; a identity i can live with.

      it does not get me money, or fame, or a "good job"

      it does not, and can not pay the bills.

      On the other hand I have a acquaintance who actually get's paid to insult people. who get's paid to swear a blue streak at an audience and get applause. who has 3 published novels and a god damn movie deal on one of them. and well..

      well he's not doing so hot for money either.. but at least he has royalties.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 21 2014, @07:18PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 21 2014, @07:18PM (#71954)

      Try being a decent person and watch how things just fall into your lap. Good jobs, good friends, good wife.

      So how many more years do I need to wait for those benefits to "just fall into [my] lap"? I've been waiting for quite a while now.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 22 2014, @12:56PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 22 2014, @12:56PM (#72262)

      I have a friend like that, obsessed with being a "badass", a buddy from high school I somehow still keep in touch with. He has all these stupid gang-style tattoos. He babbles on about how he is going to kick some guy's ass because that guy "dis-respected" him. But my friend is actually a total pussy, always backs down with a bunch of stupid drama before any fight actually happens. I wish he would stop calling me, it is always the same BS like a broken record. It is like he is eternally 15 years old.