14 DAY TRIAL // Ladar Levison, Lavabit founder, used all the tricks up his sleeve to slow down the government requests being sent to him prior to closing down the service, including by writing a response in a font that made it impossible to read.
The FBI was trying to get Lavabit to hand over all data pertaining to Edward Snowden, including the SSL key to decrypt the emails. However, while it’s true that only Snowden knew the necessary key to decrypt his emails, Lavabit could have found a way to do this, although it would have meant shattering the system it set in place.
And Levison wasn’t a fan of that theory, so he refused. Then, he was threatened once more and asked to provide all information necessary to decrypt communications, putting all of the service’s users in danger.
Levison fought the decision in court and failed, so he had to respond to the request. But he didn’t make it easier for the government. He chose a font that was nearly impossible to scan, making the document look like gibberish, The Atlantic Wire reports.
Obviously (and understandably) upset, the FBI demanded for an electronic copy of the keys and threatened Levison with $5,000 (€3,676) daily fines.
What happened next? Well, Levison closed down the site rather than cooperate. Now he’s looking to finance his legal battles.
While it’s true that the name of Edward Snowden was blacked out of the unsealed documents, the timing of the entire process really doesn’t leave any doors open for it to be anyone else.
The revelations also make it clear that the reports about the NSA investing tons of money into weakening encryption and even setting up back doors into various products are far from being a work of fiction.