riseup.net trustable?

[Widerstand]

Is there any info on who runs riseup.net and if they are trustworthy? All I know is that it's based in Seattle. The way it is presented opens the suspicion of it being a honey pot (Germany has in the past had a leftist communicational structure which was created by members of German intelligence).

[human strike]

I know lots of comrades who use it - dunno if that means it's trustworthy though.

[Widerstand]

So do I, basically half the German leftist scene does. Which is exactly why I'm asking :p

[Frosty Weasel]

I've used it for years. I once did a test email to myself with words that would get my account locked in Gmail and Hotmail and nothing happened.

[Widerstand]

That's not much the issue though. The issue is that, in theory, the people who run it have free access to all the information sent about it.

[Frosty Weasel]

A more important and forgotten issue I had several months ago included my email inbox having six or seven email intended for other people. I can also assume that my emails were also scrambled in the same manner.

Why the fuck don't I remember something as important as that when its important?

Anyways, anyone looking for a security focused alternative should check out lavabit.com, it was created as a direct reaction to the privacy issues with Google.

The website claims their admins can't access your emails because of the way their infrastructure is set up, although they neglect to post specifics.

[Ele'ill]

I don't trust it any more than I would regular email services although I know a lot of people who use it.

In person conversations are safest.

[Meridian]

Supposedly this should be fairly good when it comes to secure email:
http://www.hushmail.com/

[Widerstand]

Hushmail is a for-profit company. They operate within the legal restrictions of their country and most likely are willing to cooperate with governments (something riseup at least claims not to do). I'm not sure where, but I remember reading on the Hushmail homepage that they will give out your info to persecutors to avoid lawsuits (as does pretty much every mail provider).

Also if I want encryption I can just use PGP :S

[Frosty Weasel]

Hushmail is a for-profit company. They operate within the legal restrictions of their country and most likely are willing to cooperate with governments (something riseup at least claims not to do). I'm not sure where, but I remember reading on the Hushmail homepage that they will give out your info to persecutors to avoid lawsuits (as does pretty much every mail provider).

Also if I want encryption I can just use PGP :S

That's why I recommend Lavabit, they claim they actually cannot access it even if they wanted to. (which is why there is no reset password option in case you forget)

[Sasha]

riseup is 100% trustworthy politicaly...
in every day use sadly not so much, lots of downtime, lots of technical problems. but cool people and they would fight tooth and nail before they would hand over your data

[Meridian]

Hushmail is a for-profit company. They operate within the legal restrictions of their country and most likely are willing to cooperate with governments (something riseup at least claims not to do). I'm not sure where, but I remember reading on the Hushmail homepage that they will give out your info to persecutors to avoid lawsuits (as does pretty much every mail provider).

Also if I want encryption I can just use PGP :S
Well, there are some things I really wouldn't recommend using mail for anyways.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

Don't say sensitive shit on the internet. Ever.
Say it in a park, at night, with no batteries in yr cellphone, and only to people whose parents' house you've been in.

[ellipsis]

second on technical difficulties, also it got flagged as spam so filters were picking up emails from riseup listservs.

[R.K.D.N]

What is meant by the term honey pot?
Should we take a lesson from Pooh, a bear would go for the honey pot, but in context [bulls and bears] I do not know the term, and my idea of it is conceptual.
I know basically about bits and bites and that is even conceptual.
A powerful enough magik priest can cut off a member of the clan. When are you going to cut off the internet entirely? Which reminds me, the economist published news about china blowing up one of its own satelites, allegedly asserting their dominance in space.
Why also the allusion to Germany?

[Widerstand]

In person conversations are safest.


Well, there are some things I really wouldn't recommend using mail for anyways.


Don't say sensitive shit on the internet. Ever.
Say it in a park, at night, with no batteries in yr cellphone, and only to people whose parents' house you've been in.

Why hello thanks for stating the obvious.

Lol at VMC's second part.


What is meant by the term honey pot?
[...]
Why also the allusion to Germany?

A trap set up to attract the target group. In regards to leftist political activity, a honey pot would be a group or platform or network or communication service or something similar, set up by state intelligence (or neo-nazi's, or similar) to spy on those who get lured in and use it.

Examples of such honey pots would be the Spinnennetz, which was a leftist communicational platform in Germany set up by a member of the German Verfassungsschutz ("constitutional protection"; intelligence). Needless to say, the German intelligence loved having a tap on large parts of leftist communication.

A more recent honey pot was set up by Bewegung Schwarzer Phönix ("movement black phoenix"), which supposedly is a leftist group (though no one really knows), trying to expose security risks within leftist groups (though there is some debate about it and the way they did). What they did was set up a honey pot, in the form of an E-Mail address for the establishment of an AVV (Autonome Vollversammlung = "autonomous plenary meeting") in Berlin. They then asked publicly that people send the E-Mails of those they think could be interested (anyone who did this stinks of naivety btw), and proceeded to get access to these E-mails through various exploits such as guessing passwords (apparently "anarchy" was the most common one), guessing security questions (It seems people thought "1+1=?" was a secure question '_'), or bruteforcing.

The topic of riseup.net has been brought up in the debates about this action, because large parts of the German left use riseup, and no one seems to know anything about them. Also, BSP claimed there were substential errors with riseup.net and that it could be hacked, though they didn't state how exactly (nor did they contact riseup, as far as known), and their weird explanation seemed rather implausible (so it might be a lie/stunt).

[ellipsis]

Don't say sensitive shit on the internet. Ever.
Say it in a park, at night, with no batteries in yr cellphone, and only to people whose parents' house you've been in.

Ideally you shouldn't even know the true identity of this person, "comrade bork", depending on the type of action.

Also why would i go to people's parents house? if you are doing illegal direct actions HQ'd in ur moms basement at ages 25+, i'll find another comrade, if i were to be engaging in said activities, which is impossible because I am a good boy.

"Hey mom? can u make my comrades some bag lunches for our direct action? did u wash my black bloc clothes? oh mumsie, have you seen my eco-defence sabatoge manual, i thought i left it in the bathroom?"

parks are not secure, directional microphones (which you can buy as a kids toy at walmart) could pick up your conversation from anywhere around or in the park.

I heard about this secure area called the phantom zone, anybody have a way to get there?

[Rafiq]

How do we know if Revleft is trustworthy?

[Widerstand]

How do we know if Revleft is trustworthy?

How is this relevant at all? RevLeft isn't a leftist mass communication platform.

[gorillafuck]

How do we know if Revleft is trustworthy?
We know this forum is monitored and we have rules that have to do with that. Public forum posts and private e-mail are totally different.

[not your usual suspect]

Don't write stuff in emails that you wouldn't write on a postcard. Because, the way that email works, is that anyone (servers and system administrators) between the sender and the recipient can read the email. Just like a postcard can be read by anyone from the sending post office until the recipient post office. Unless you encrypt your email, in which case you should use something like GNU Privacy Guard (a GNU implementation of the OpenPGP specification). This requires that all persons that you communicate with have a set of GPG keys (a public key and a private key). The best way to exchange public keys is in person, rather than over the Internet (where they could potentially be intercepted and changed). Please note that email actually has more potential problems than postcards. For example, emails can be undetectably modified by intermediate servers (unless the emails have been signed or encrypted using GPG or similar). Please see the Wikipedia article on E-mail_privacy for more information. I should note that the web works in a similar manner, in that everything is "in the clear" and can be read or changed by anyone between your computer and the server. P.S. My paragraphs are still being stripped from my posts. This is really fucking annoying. Oh, and quote marks are being changed as well. Perhaps this only happens when I preview my posts first?

[R.K.D.N]

Thanks for the info Staatsfeind, relevantly informative. AND The rest of you, thanks for the comic relief.

[Bitter Ashes]

tbh, you can't do any useful organising that the state would find "dangerous" through email anyway. You've got to do that stuff face to face to get things clear. Use emails to alert folks to meerings and the like to discuss things in depth.

[nuisance]

Also why would i go to people's parents house? if you are doing illegal direct actions HQ'd in ur moms basement at ages 25+, i'll find another comrade, if i were to be engaging in said activities, which is impossible because I am a good boy.

"Hey mom? can u make my comrades some bag lunches for our direct action? did u wash my black bloc clothes? oh mumsie, have you seen my eco-defence sabatoge manual, i thought i left it in the bathroom?"
VMK obviously used the knowing parents part to mean that you should make sure that you actually know the person you're talking with, so they ain't a cop or something. No ones talking about doing shit in there Mums house, don't be a twat.

[PhoenixAsh]

Do not use any online communication without serious encryption....and only if you absolutely, positively have to. Even that and you can be sure you tip off somebody who is curious why the hell you are using encryption in the first place.

[ellipsis]

VMK obviously used the knowing parents part to mean that you should make sure that you actually know the person you're talking with, so they ain't a cop or something. No ones talking about doing shit in there Mums house, don't be a twat.

I'm issuing a verbal warning for sexist language. I made a point through hyperbole.

I still don't see what knowing people's parents has to do with trust. I don't know any of my comrade's parents. And knowing somebody's parents doesn't prevent them from say, turning state's evidence.

[RedSquare]

Anyone have an invite to Riseup Mail? Contact through PM if interested.

[nuisance]

I'm issuing a verbal warning for sexist language. I made a point through hyperbole.

I still don't see what knowing people's parents has to do with trust. I don't know any of my comrade's parents. And knowing somebody's parents doesn't prevent them from say, turning state's evidence.
Fuck off with your verbal warning, twat. Is calling you a cock sexist n'all, cos I reckon it's pretty undesireable to be called genitalia, whether it be a guys or girls.

[Red Bayonet]

Everything in the US is infested with US Army/Police fusion cell intelligence operatives. Especially since the Fatherland Security act was passed. Treat all US left/progressive groups as penetrated.

[Fietsketting]

Day to day stuff can be mailed, and encrypted. Serious stuff you talk face to face. Its really not that hard. :sneaky:

[Widerstand]

Day to day stuff can be mailed, and encrypted. Serious stuff you talk face to face. Its really not that hard. :sneaky:

You realize that this does in no way shape or form answer the question, right? (this is also directed to the other X users who said the same thing before)

[Bitter Ashes]

Anyone have an invite to Riseup Mail? Contact through PM if interested.
You don't need an invite really. Just put a request in and you should be fine.