Encrypted E-Mail Company Hushmail Spills to Feds
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/11/encrypted-e-mai.html
By Ryan Singel
Wired.com
November 07, 2007
Hushmail, a longtime provider of encrypted web-based email, markets
itself by saying that "not even a Hushmail employee with access to our
servers can read your encrypted e-mail, since each message is uniquely
encoded before it leaves your computer."
But it turns out that statement seems not to apply to individuals
targeted by government agencies that are able to convince a Canadian
court to serve a court order on the company.
A September court document (.pdf) from a federal prosecution of alleged
steroid dealers reveals the Canadian company turned over 12 CDs worth of
e-mails from three Hushmail accounts, following a court order obtained
through a mutual assistance treaty between the U.S. and Canada. The
charging document alleges that many Chinese wholesale steroid chemical
providers, underground laboratories and steroid retailers do business
over Hushmail.