In Lavabit Appeal, U.S. Doubles Down on Access to Web Crypto Keys
A U.S. email provider can promise its users all the security and privacy it wants; it still has to do whatever it takes to give the government access.
That’s the gist of the Justice Department’s 60-page appellate brief in the Lavabit surveillance case, filed today in the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia.
In the brief, the government defends its use of a search warrant and a grand jury subpoena to obtain the private encryption keys for Lavabit’s email service and website, and tacitly impugns Texas-based proprietor Ladar Levison for shutting down the site and thwarting the FBI’s surveillance plans. “Mr. Levison alerted all of Lavabit’s users, including the target of the investigation, that Lavabit was engaged in litigation with the government and that, rather than comply with the court’s orders, he decided to shut down his business,” the government notes.
