I don’t know what’s happening in India. I heard they blocked VLC & all VPN, some time back. Now they have blocked Protonmail.
Just the world’s biggest election between a popular, incumbent president associated with the color orange and religious nationalism, versus a disorganized opposition. And fake news is a problem.
When I read VLC I thought it was a typo. Then I searched for it. Couldn’t find any official reason, is it known it or only speculated?
Probably trolls being trolls or just the usual things governments like to do: ban anything and everything they don’t understand or like.
The site is trash my DNS blocked all their garbage so that’s good.
Even though the police sought information about the users who sent such emails, the cops faced a roadblock as the platform is encrypted end-to-end, which means users’ emails, files, calendar entries, and passwords had strong privacy protections.
What? I’m pretty sure encryption does not work that way, does it? Can someone explain this?
It’s stored with zero-knowledge encryption, which means the server only receives enough information to authenticate the user, but otherwise has no ability to decrypt the user’s files. Proton has an explainer.
They basically can’t see/display any of the contents of your emails/calendars/etc. is the super short answer.
But if someone sent a threat using their platform all that is really required is the information who owns the account that sent it which is information that should still be available even with an end-to-end encrypted service.
We can debate all we want but clearly it’s enough of a hurdle that the Indian government tried to block Proton’s services entirely. Legal standards and what we consider “logical conclusions” aren’t always the same thing either so I imagine that’s where a lot of the nuance lies here. Without knowing exactly what happened I don’t think either of us can really parse this beyond what we now know about the Indian government’s efforts to block Proton’s services.
The website is trash can someone summarize?
In February, numerous schools in Chennai were targeted with hoax bomb threats sent via encrypted email service Proton Mail. The Indian government sought action against Proton Mail due to its misuse by malicious individuals. Swiss authorities intervened to prevent the platform from being blocked in India. Despite police efforts to trace the origin of the threats, Proton Mail’s encryption hindered investigations. The company refused to comply with Indian authorities’ requests for information, citing Swiss law. Proton Mail argued that blocking the service wouldn’t deter cybercriminals and could impede legitimate users. This incident isn’t the first time Proton Mail has faced controversy; it was previously blocked in Russia for similar reasons.
What a crap site.
Everything you need to know about so-called ‘Swiss Privacy’ we learned decades ago from Operation Thesaurus, AKA, Operation Rubicon. We learned that CIA operations and black budget banking are actually headquartered in the Swiss underground.
Operation Rubicon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_RubiconCrypto AG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_AGIf you trust any third-party server to protect your privacy, you’re a rube. If you trust Proton Mail to protect your privacy, you’re a rube getting ‘crossed’ by the Swiss Rubi-con. Either you own your keys and your data on your computer or else you have no privacy. Someone else’s promise that your data will be ‘encrypted’ so they can’t decipher it is a hollow pledge. If you send any form of plaintext to a remote server, no matter how much they claim to encrypt it, you have zero assurance of data privacy.
Watch the phan boiz rage outlet!
#Cryptography #Cryptology #Encryption #Crypto #Protonmail #CryptoAG #Switzerland #CIA
So what should we do then? switch to something else? Host our own email service?
I really don’t know.
It depends upon your security needs and risk assessment.
Are you a whistleblower?
Are you handling confidential business, financial or legal communication?
Are you being monitored by state agents?
Are you sharing love letters with someone?
Are you discussing or transferring confidential records?
You have to look at and assess your use case before you can decide on a solution.
No matter what your risks are, every solution should ALWAYS include end-to-end encryption in which the parties own and control their own encryption keys and identity on their own devices, not in the cloud.
That is the baseline. Then depending on your situation there are other factors and solutions to consider on top of the baseline.
When you own and control your encryption keys on your own device, then no third party can turn over your keys to a hostile entity. If you encryption is dependent upon a third party, they own your encryption and you have zero security, no matter how much they promise you.
Here are a few secure communication software examples for consideration:
Onionshare: https://onionshare.org/
Retroshare: https://retroshare.cc/
Bitmessage: https://bitmessage.org
Soon the goons from the govt will create a made up case (a big one this time), so they can get an excuse to ban proton. Then vpn…then tor…if modi and his bf amit get a 3rd term, india will go from electoral autocracy to proper dictatorship.
