Lavabit's Legal Fight: Should The Feds Have The Right To Break The Internet's Security System?

At the end of July, the government filed a sealed document with a court in Virginia that sought to portray Dallas, Texas, business owner Ladar Levison as an obstruction to an investigation of a not-publicly-named-individual (that we all know to be NSA leaker Edward Snowden).

The FBI wanted to collect information about Snowden’s use of Lavabit’s secure email services, but had been told by Levison that his system was not designed in a way that allowed for easy capture of his customers’ email activity. “On July 11, 2013, the U.S. Attorney’s office issued a grand jury subpoena for Mr. Levison to testify… [and] to bring to the grand jury his encryption keys,” wrote U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride in the July court filing [page. 99]. “The FBI attempted to serve the subpoena on Mr. Levison at his residence. After knocking on his door, the FBI Special Agents witnessed Mr. Levison exit his apartment from a back door, get in his car, and drive away.”

“I don’t have a back door,” said Levison in an interview earlier this month. “I was just leaving my house.”