Lavabit and Silent Circle join forces to create the ‘Dark Mail Alliance’ for NSA-proof email

The recently closed email services Lavabit and Silent Circle, both of which shuttered their email operations following revelations about the extent of the NSA’s and GCHQ’s Internet snooping capabilities, have formed the “Dark Mail Alliance”.

The aim is to provide a more secure email service than Silent Circle or Lavabit did previously using new technology developed specifically to automatically initiate peer-to-peer encryption using a protocol called SCIMP. The difference between this and existing encryption standards is that it encrypts the content of emails, attachments and metadata, whereas existing methods do not encrypt metadata.

While you might think that proprietary tech is the way to go for such a task, the resultant organisation is actually planning to make all the code open for all to see.

➤ Silent Circle via [Forbes.com]

Featured Image Credit – Getty Images