8 November 2013
The US Government is now fighting for unrestricted access to the encryption keys to the internet.
For the internet to endeavour to remain private we greatly rely on tech companies to hide user content. As we speak the American government are in court attempting to win the power to seize the keys to US companies whenever they wish. If this is accomplished no one will be guaranteed privacy online.
Although the demand for these encryption keys is said to be ‘unconstitutional’ it is by no means stopping the US government.
The NSA has accomplished gaining access to messages and content without the need of encryption keys up until now, so internet privacy is already weakened. It has also been reported that the government have asked tech companies (Google and Microsoft) for their master keys. However if the US Justice department win the battle in court and gain unrestricted access to the encryption keys via tech companies the work of the NSA/US Government will have been made allot easier. They would only need to request the key from the tech company and the company would have no option but to comply.
With everyone concerned that there is nothing more that can be done to protect their privacy online, Phil Zimmerman, the founder of Silent Circle, believes coming up with a new way to secure email may be the answer “If you just do it by fighting in court, you might lose.” “By changing the architecture, well, that gives you a big advantage.”
Galaxkey has the advantage. Galaxkey‘s architecture is unique in that the company has no access to the encryption keys at all. Other email encryption companies secure the keys within the company database thus if ever government demands the keys from them, they would have to hand them over. Galaxkey on the other hand would not be in this position as the encryption keys are not stored with Galaxkey; the user has complete control of their keys and stores them in their environment. The only way the government would be able to gain access to the user data is by requesting the keys from the user himself/herself.
With Galaxkey the user has ultimate control of their keys and their privacy.
Mother Jones:
Forget the Back Door: The Government Now Wants the Keys to the Internet