#CRYPTOCAT AUTHOR FOR BACKING TO BUILD SOFTWARE#
To the US government, certain strengths of cryptographic software constitute munitions hence, their export has been banned. Security is difficult.Īs Slashdot commenter eldavojohn noted, Kobeissi’s interrogation well may have arisen out of the US’s export controls on levels of encryption, covered under the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) of 1976.
It needs a lot more testing, a lot more research in order for me to ascertain its effectiveness on the field. However, the reason why I always make sure to mention that it's still an experiment is that I understand that other projects, such as Tor and OTR, have been under development for five years, ten years or more. It promises to deliver something great and I've been doing some serious, peer-reviewed, open research and development on all of its aspects. In other words, Cryptocat at this point is, in Kobeissi’s own words, a “really cool project,” but its developers still have plenty of work to do: Cryptocat aims to make sure that only the parties you're talking to get your messages, but that doesn't mean these parties are necessarily trustworthy. * Cryptocat does not protect against untrustworthy people: Parties you're conversing with may still leak your messages without your knowledge. Cryptocat does not protect against hardware or software key loggers which might be snooping on your keyboard strokes and sending them to an undesired third party. * Cryptocat does not protect against key loggers: Your messages are encrypted as they go through the wire, but that doesn't mean that your keyboard is necessarily safe.
Cryptocat even offers a Tor Hidden Service at xdtfje3c46d2dnjd.onion. For anonymization, we highly recommend using Tor. * Cryptocat does not anonymize you: While your communications are encrypted, your identity can still be traced since Cryptocat does not mask your IP address. According to the project site, this is what Cryptocat can’t do: Kobeissi’s concerns that users not put themselves at risk when using Cryptocat likely have to do with the program’s limitations. I don't think I was interrogated because Cryptocat is this super incredible encrypted communication tool that scares the US national security - I believe I've been targeted for interrogation simply because of the general nature and apparent popularity of my work. I really hope this incident doesn't blow confidence in Cryptocat out of proportion. It’s understandable that a spectrum of online users, from government resisters to cyber criminals and terrorists, would be interested in an encrypted, untraceable chat service.īut just because US security developed an interest in the developer, in Cryptocat and in its cryptographic strength, we shouldn’t foster unrealistic ideas about what the application can do, Kobeissi told me, reiterating an earlier tweet: Examples include communications between those who participated in the uprisings of the Arab Spring. If and when the application reaches its potential, it will provide a safe way for people to communicate when such communications could put their lives at risk.
#CRYPTOCAT AUTHOR FOR BACKING TO BUILD FREE#
The project’s aim is to provide encrypted communications that are easily accessible and free from the governmental or corporate interception that shadow other chat services, such as those from Facebook, Google or Yahoo.
“Cryptocat usage has sizably gone up in the past 24 hours,” Kobeissi told me in an email exchange. In addition, his passport was confiscated for about an hour, he said.įollowing the incident, interest in the program has risen sharply.
Kobeissi says that his interrogator, who claimed 22 years of computer experience, asked him which algorithms Cryptocat used and about its “censorship resistance”. Out of my 4 DHS interrogations in the past 3 weeks, it’s the first time I’m asked about Cryptocat crypto and my passport is confiscated. Here’s what Kobeissi said about the ordeal: PrivacySOS has posted the relevant tweets here. The developer, Nadim Kobeissi of Montreal, was detained at the US-Canada border on Wednesday, he tweeted. Interest in a free, encrypted web chat service called Cryptocat has spiked following the detainment and interrogation of its developer at the US border.
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