FBI Have Shut Down a Whole Email Server Over Bomb Threats

Last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized an email server in an effort to find the sender of bomb threats to the University of Pittsburgh, but the seizure itself has raised some red flags.

(Related: University of Pittsburg rocked by dozens of bomb threats)

Wired’s Threat Level, a blog on the tech website that focuses on privacy, crime and online security, reported the server was called Mixmaster and was used by groups who wanted to anonymize their messages. More specifically, Wired reported human rights groups, such as Riseup Networks and May First/People Link, used this server to prevent emails from being traced back to them. The server itself was operated by an ISP based in Europe.

What has some groups like Riseup peeved about the server’s takedown is the approach the feds used. The FBI did have a warrant to do so, but Riseup described in a statement that the FBI used a “sledgehammer approach” that shutdown not only whoever sent the bomb threats but also anyone else who relied on that server for communication. The statement called it “an attack on anonymous speech.”

“The server seizure is not only an attack against us, but an attack against all users of the Internet who depend on anonymous communication,” May First/People Link director Jamie McClelland said in the statement.



[link to www.theblaze.com]