4 ms·

Open letter by Ladar Levison

61 points by ikawe 12y ago

Lx1oG-AWb6h_ZG0 12y ago
What's happening with lavabit's certs? I'm getting this error from Chrome: The certificate that Chrome received during this connection attempt has been revoked. Error type: Key revocation Subject: *.lavabit.com Issuer: Go Daddy Secure Certification Authority Public key hashes: sha1//dHxYZfXYW3xW7ib88kHFDNZIAg= sha256/hnOeP/93cTcwYUvU+lLtm2Jd6SXWLzr+fO0F/Srdw98= sha1/ui61qD4TI9lTS15lvOejE13QqZY= sha256/MrZLZnJ6IGPkBm87lYywqu5Xal7O/ZUzmbuIdHMdlYc= sha1/7uWfHiqlRMPLJUOmmlvUaiW8u44= sha256/VjLZe/p3W/PJnd6lL8JVNBCGQBZynFLdZSTIqcO0SJ8=
- andreyf 12y ago
  iirc, they were revoked because he complied with the order to disclose them to law enforcement
- rosser 12y ago
  Did you even read the error message? They've been revoked. The certificate that Chrome received during this connection attempt has been revoked. Error type: Key revocation Subject: *.lavabit.com
justin66 12y ago
This absolutely isn't intended to be victim blaming in the slightest but my first thought when the story detailing his troubles in the Guardian came out a few days ago was: if you're going to start a service that challenges law enforcement and the intelligence services, you should really have a competent lawyer on retainer. Thinking about it today, it occurs to me that in this day and age pretty much anybody with 410,000 users should probably have a competent lawyer who understands their business on retainer. What would be the exceptions to that?
- sumedh 12y ago
  I have no idea about lavabit's financials but maybe they were not making enough money from the paid accounts. I am assuming a lawyer on retainer would be very expensive.
  - pan69 12y ago
    So that's what freedom an liberty essentially is; expensive.
  - trvz 12y ago
    It made less than 100k USD yearly revenue, paying Levison and a supporter.
    - endeavor 12y ago
      That's unfortunate but it's also a bit like saying, "it made less than 100k USD yearly revenue, they couldn't afford backing up their data." Yeah both a hard-disk crashing and a legal attack are rare, but in their business they need to expect that it will happen sooner or later.
  - jarrett 12y ago
    Let's say your attorney charges $250/hour, and you expect to need up to 40 hours of work on short notice. That's 40 * $250 = $10,000. If the business ran into legal trouble and had to use up the 40 hours, it wouldn't automatically result in the attorney cutting off services. Most likely, if the attorney thought the business was solvent, s/he would continue working, and would invoice the business for anything above the $10,000.
ipsin 12y ago
The text is essentially the same as covered by the Guardian here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7774158 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7774158 And tptacek's first comment on that post does a good job of highlighting where Ladar's narrative cuts across the timeline of what actually happened.
robbiet480 12y ago
I'm getting a MITM warning from Chrome. At least that's what I think it is? http://i.rxt.gd/9Car http://i.rxt.gd/9Car EDIT: Oh, clicking more reveals the error appears because the certificate has been revoked.
Glyptodon 12y ago
Well, I want to read it, but not badly enough to figure out how to bypass the certificate issue...
- ngoede 12y ago
  One way is use firefox.
  - breakall 12y ago
    I get this when I open that link in Firefox 29.0.1: Secure Connection Failed An error occurred during a connection to lavabit.com. Peer's Certificate has been revoked. (Error code: sec_error_revoked_certificate) And there is no way to override it or make an exception.
  - n2j3 12y ago
    another way that works out of the box is to use a text-only browser like w3m :)
gcb0 12y ago
why those histories never have the name of the agents, prosecutors, judges, etc?
- metaphorm 12y ago
  that information is usually suppressed by court order
codeoclock 12y ago
Can someone who knows how to get around the cert issue please copy and paste to pastebin or similar?
breakall 12y ago
For those having certificate issues, text of the letter is here: http://pastebin.com/hajkxLQs http://pastebin.com/hajkxLQs

61 points by ikawe 12y ago

What's happening with lavabit's certs? I'm getting this error from Chrome: The certificate that Chrome received during this connection attempt has been revoked. Error type: Key revocation Subject: *.lavabit.com Issuer: Go Daddy Secure Certification Authority Public key hashes: sha1//dHxYZfXYW3xW7ib88kHFDNZIAg= sha256/hnOeP/93cTcwYUvU+lLtm2Jd6SXWLzr+fO0F/Srdw98= sha1/ui61qD4TI9lTS15lvOejE13QqZY= sha256/MrZLZnJ6IGPkBm87lYywqu5Xal7O/ZUzmbuIdHMdlYc= sha1/7uWfHiqlRMPLJUOmmlvUaiW8u44= sha256/VjLZe/p3W/PJnd6lL8JVNBCGQBZynFLdZSTIqcO0SJ8=

andreyf 12y ago
iirc, they were revoked because he complied with the order to disclose them to law enforcement
rosser 12y ago
Did you even read the error message? They've been revoked. The certificate that Chrome received during this connection attempt has been revoked. Error type: Key revocation Subject: *.lavabit.com

justin66 12y ago

This absolutely isn't intended to be victim blaming in the slightest but my first thought when the story detailing his troubles in the Guardian came out a few days ago was: if you're going to start a service that challenges law enforcement and the intelligence services, you should really have a competent lawyer on retainer. Thinking about it today, it occurs to me that in this day and age pretty much anybody with 410,000 users should probably have a competent lawyer who understands their business on retainer. What would be the exceptions to that?

sumedh 12y ago
I have no idea about lavabit's financials but maybe they were not making enough money from the paid accounts. I am assuming a lawyer on retainer would be very expensive.
- pan69 12y ago
  So that's what freedom an liberty essentially is; expensive.
- trvz 12y ago
  It made less than 100k USD yearly revenue, paying Levison and a supporter.
  - endeavor 12y ago
    That's unfortunate but it's also a bit like saying, "it made less than 100k USD yearly revenue, they couldn't afford backing up their data." Yeah both a hard-disk crashing and a legal attack are rare, but in their business they need to expect that it will happen sooner or later.
- jarrett 12y ago
  Let's say your attorney charges $250/hour, and you expect to need up to 40 hours of work on short notice. That's 40 * $250 = $10,000. If the business ran into legal trouble and had to use up the 40 hours, it wouldn't automatically result in the attorney cutting off services. Most likely, if the attorney thought the business was solvent, s/he would continue working, and would invoice the business for anything above the $10,000.

ipsin 12y ago

The text is essentially the same as covered by the Guardian here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7774158 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7774158 And tptacek's first comment on that post does a good job of highlighting where Ladar's narrative cuts across the timeline of what actually happened.

robbiet480 12y ago

I'm getting a MITM warning from Chrome. At least that's what I think it is? http://i.rxt.gd/9Car http://i.rxt.gd/9Car EDIT: Oh, clicking more reveals the error appears because the certificate has been revoked.

Glyptodon 12y ago

Well, I want to read it, but not badly enough to figure out how to bypass the certificate issue...

ngoede 12y ago
One way is use firefox.
- breakall 12y ago
  I get this when I open that link in Firefox 29.0.1: Secure Connection Failed An error occurred during a connection to lavabit.com. Peer's Certificate has been revoked. (Error code: sec_error_revoked_certificate) And there is no way to override it or make an exception.
- n2j3 12y ago
  another way that works out of the box is to use a text-only browser like w3m :)

gcb0 12y ago

why those histories never have the name of the agents, prosecutors, judges, etc?

metaphorm 12y ago
that information is usually suppressed by court order

codeoclock 12y ago

Can someone who knows how to get around the cert issue please copy and paste to pastebin or similar?

breakall 12y ago

For those having certificate issues, text of the letter is here: http://pastebin.com/hajkxLQs http://pastebin.com/hajkxLQs