[liberationtech] New Yorker debut's Aaron Swartz's 'Strongbox.'

[Nadim Kobeissi]

On Thu, May 16, 2013 at 10:21 AM, Griffin Boyce <griffinboyce at gmail.com>wrote:

> Nadim Kobeissi <nadim at nadim.cc> wrote:
>
>> The technical aspects aside, I find the fact that they're using Aaron
>> Swartz as a marketing asset to be morally problematic. :/
>>
>> NK
>>
>>
>   I was originally conflicted by this as well, but... Considering he was
> the architect of the project and worked on it, and his family/friends seem
> to be at peace with it...  I suspect there's more to this than meets the
> eye.
>

Yes, he was definitely a main developer, but the article trumpets that a
bit too much. It's definitely important and valuable, it should definitely
be mentioned, but it reminds me of the Silent Circle debacle where everyone
trumpeted Silent Circle as "unbreakable" because Phil Zimmermann was
involved. I don't like it when projects are evaluated by virtue of *who* worked
on them rather than how good the code is.


>
>   What happens to our projects when we die? Will anyone really care about
> them as much as we do? Will they be mired in potential controversy and left
> unfinished?  There are layers and layers of things that need to be
> considered when something like this happens, and as I don't know personally
> know anyone involved, I'm just giving people the benefit of the doubt.
>
>   If every investigative journalist took the time to learn PGP, Strongbox
> wouldn't have much to offer.  It's *completely* possible to encrypt files
> on a flash drive and mail it to a journalist (or email it using Tor and a
> throwaway email).  This process is not even especially difficult under
> Windows.  The problem is a lack of user education.
>

>   I haven't taken a look at the code yet, but cobbling together a webmail
> script, a remailer (even a not-especially-robust one), and the Stanford
> javascript crypto library would not be a particularly arduous task.  It's
> not trivial, and you'd have to be a coder, but due diligence and selecting
> file hosts and all of that would be the hardest part of this entire process.
>

The GlobaLeaks project, to my knowledge, is trying to balance open
accessibility in a fashion likely more relevant to your preferences.
https://globaleaks.org/


>
> best,
> Griffin
>
> --
> Technical Program Associate, Open Technology Institute
> #Foucault / PGP: 0xAE792C97 / OTR: saint at jabber.ccc.de
>
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