Wave Systems Corp. (fka WAVXQ)

[aleajactaest]

alea is sprague!

Now that is what I call a direct response to a message board post.

Silent Circle, Lavabit End Secure Email Services Due to Surveillance Concerns - Brian Prince
August 13, 2013

In a blog post, Lavabit owner Ladar Levison laments being unable to share the exact circumstances that prompted his decision, but writes that the decision was made after considerable "soul searching."

"This experience has taught me one very important lesson: without congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would _strongly_ recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States," he writes.

Elsewhere in the industry, offered mixed predictions about how the mood of Web users and organizations will impact both the security market and trust on the Internet.

"The industry is full of visionaries and entrepreneurs who find inspiration in the marketplace to make the next generation of tools that businesses and consumers desire," Leidig says. "Judging from the significant jump in our prospect inquiries, many companies using cloud applications were rattled by the extent of the surveillance programs."

Steven Sprague, CEO of Wave Systems, says that instead of dropping services, a new market may open for protecting private communications on semi-public networks by using key servers located in different countries. This will ensure that government access to keys is dependent on the sovereign control of the country where the key server is, he explains.

"The challenge will be to establish the rules and notifications around these keys," he says. "I would also suggest that the challenge is to separate the messages and the keys requiring the companies to cooperate with the government access. Access is important for law enforcement, but voyeurism is not a good plan."

"It is time to focus on enhancing private communications," he continues. "The difference is: where are the keys? If there is a central key service in Netherlands, then content protected with those keys can only be viewed if access is granted from the Netherlands."

It is important that there is separation between content and keys so a single enterprise does not have the ability to read communications without the customer's knowledge, says Sprague.

Trust has already been lost to marketing on the Web, he adds.

"Everyone knows that Google and Apple are reading everything. [But] there is an opportunity for companies to promote protected content," he says.

http://www.darkreading.com/privacy/silent-circle-lavabit-end-secure-email-s/240159915