Women in Technology

Article:		Privacy and Anonymity in Email
Subject:		subpoena attack
Date:		2009-08-27 19:10:32
From:		hellocsharp
Could you explain "subpoena attack" more clearly? A clear example is the best. I'm a new one in anonymity system. Thank you so much.

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• subpoena attack
  2009-08-28 14:09:36  DavidMertz [View]
  
  
  Wow. I wonder how the respondent came across this really old article. Glad they did, since it remains accurate.
  
  In any case, I think 'hellocsharp' is trying to read the term "subpoena attack" as something less literal than it means. A subpoena attack is exactly what it sounds like: someone gets a subpoena to search or seize the servers that provide some service, such as anonymity. I suppose nowadays, in this era of warrantless wiretaps, that sounds quaint.
  
  In general, some cryptographic design can potentially be attacked by a legal order to access the machines the cryptography runs on (some designs are resistant to this, others are not. A system like, e.g. Hotmail, presumably has no such resistance, and Microsoft will happily turn over all the information it has in response to a court order. Other systems, like the one I describe avoid letting the machine or its user having the capability of turning over (at least some) compromising information even if the user wants to.