14 DAY TRIAL // The world needs encryption, said Edward Snowden not too long ago, and the thought was echoed by security experts around the world, tech companies and the public.
Proper encryption will keep your conversations and files safe from prying eyes, whether that means hiding them from hackers or intelligence agencies. Of course, all cyphers can be broken, but that usually requires a lot of work, which is why the NSA tried to get companies to implement their own random number generators – with the right key, they wouldn’t have to try too much to crack open encrypted files.
The complete disregard for people’s privacy was made obvious last year when Lavabit, the secure email service supposedly used by Edward Snowden, was shut down after the US government demanded that the site turn over the SSL keys. This wouldn’t have revealed Snowden’s files alone, but of all 400,000 users of the service.
The idea of improving encryption took over the world’s tech companies and many services have been born since then, offering safety online.
Lavaboom, a new encrypted email service (whose name is a tribute to Lavabit) was recently born in Germany. By creating the company in this country, the service should have some added protection from the likes of the NSA, which does not have the power to demand its SSL keys, for instance.
“There's been a hugely positive response to our announcement of private beta, as we now have over 10,000 users on the waiting list and our user base grew by 5000% this month. We'd like people to be sending secure emails already; sadly it's going to be a little while before many of those on the waiting list gain access to Lavaboom. We'll send out the next batch of invitations and speed up private beta in the coming weeks,” said Bill Franklin, Lavaboom CMO.
According to Franklin’s statements, people have a clear desire to protect their content online. In fact, more than half of those who joined Lavaboom in the beta program have never sent an encrypted email before.
“This is really great news, we want to attract people who haven't considered encrypting their emails before and that's exactly what is happening,” he said for Softpedia.
The company has also been working to develop mobile tools for Android and iOS, but also for phones similar to Blackphone from Silent Circle. However, since things are just in the early stages, it may take a while before these are delivered.