CAcert System Admins discussion list

[IanG <iang AT cacert.org>]

I know this isn't the right time to cause waves on this 
issue, but my blog post of today on electronic discovery in 
courts is apropos CAcert [1] so time for a gentle reminder.

The basic issue is that electronic discovery is a big threat 
to CAcert, and the defence is:

    *to move our email over to CAcert email addresses.*

The defence against the discovery attack was crafted and 
pushed through the board by Greg Rose back at the 'top'.  He 
knew what he was doing.  You might recall that Greg is a big 
chief at Qualcomm, the big USA telco patent company, and 
they went through a truly massive patent & discovery fight 
with another big company.

He brought that experience to CAcert for free!  The solution 
was in several parts:

   1. all of us use cacert email addresses for all email
      relating to the business of CAcert.
   2. All business of CAcert is by default open and public.
      Secrets have to be heavily and serious justified,
      so no excuse not to use CAcert email addresses.
   3. the cacert email system should shove every email
      into a black hole for later discovery mining.
   4. Arbitration is required to whiten the black hole.

Much of the groundwork for this has been done:  we have the 
email system (thanks, Daniel!), we have the open policy and 
practice, we have dispute resolution.  The last step, the 
black hole, can be worked on some time by Daniel and other 
email systems administrators.

Primarily the discovery issue is a threat that will land 
after Mozilla ascension, but we have to prepare for it well 
before it lands.  Like, now.  In my opinion, if done well, 
discovery would likely destroy CAcert.  If the email is 
escrowed well, it will present a very good, permanent and 
cheap defence against anyone who knows the legal game.

When and if you can, please get your CAcert email addresses 
up and working!  There is a good reason for it:  CAcert's 
survival in a discovery attack will be at stake.  And, your 
laptop may well escape seizure because of the defence.



iang




[1] Financial Cryptography Update: Discovery, the bright new 
sword of the digital judiciary!

https://financialcryptography.com/mt/archives/001090.html