Press Release: Least Authority Enterprises, which makes products and services for secure online storage recently launched its operations in Berlin, Germany, by founding a new company, Least Authority TFA GmbH. Least Authority’s products are based on Tahoe-LAFS – the highly regarded open source, decentralized, encrypted file-storage system.
“We are thrilled to launch Least Authority TFA GmbH. Our mission is to build an affordable, ethical, usable, and lasting data storage solution and to let the control of the data stay where it belongs – in the hands of the user. We believe that it requires free and open source software, end-to-end cryptography, user-friendly interfaces, and a sustainable economic model,” said Liz Steininger, CEO and Managing Director of Least Authority TFA GmbH.
Least Authority Enterprises was formed in 2011 in Boulder, Colorado USA by Zooko Wilcox. Zooko is known in the crypto community for co-creating Tahoe-LAFS. He is also the Founder and CEO of Zerocoin Electric Coin Company, the company which in October 2016 released Zcash – a decentralized and open-source cryptocurrency that offers privacy and selective transparency of transactions. According to Zooko, he decided to move Least Authority’s operations to Berlin and pass on the baton of the company to one of his closest associates, Liz, on account of his preoccupation with Zcash. “Instead of simultaneously running Least Authority alongside Zcash and splitting my time between the two companies, I decided to take a step back from the day-to-day working of Least Authority and entrust the responsibility to Liz,” said Zooko.
Liz has over 15 years of project management experience. She brings in the organizational skills and the knowledge necessary to steer the company in the right direction. Liz has the credibility and the ability to connect with people and communicate well. Most importantly, she is passionate and committed both to the company and its mission of nurturing openness and freedom on the Internet.
“The fact that Berlin has a dynamic economy and comprehensive privacy laws that protect individual rights against information collection and processing by the government and/or private entities also played a part in the launch of Least Authority TFA GmbH,” said Liz.
Least Authority was started with the goal of creating freedom compatible technologies and to let users take advantage of the online services while retaining control over the data. “People deserve privacy and security in the digital data that make up our daily lives,” said the company’s founder Zooko Wilcox.
“Least Authoritarians do not believe in security by policy. Security by design is what we do and we are working diligently to create software designs that are inspired by end-to-end security and the ‘Principle of least authority,’ an important design consideration which enhances the protection of data and functionality from faults (fault-tolerance) and malicious behavior (computer security). Our S4 product – an Amazon S3-based backend for Tahoe-LAFS, provides what is called the ‘provider-independent security’, which means that under no circumstances can Least Authority circumvent the encryption and we never look at your communication even if we want to,” said Liz.
The team actively contributes to the Tahoe-LAFS project, which aims to provide Free and Open decentralized cloud storage system. We recently released version 1.12.0, which brings Least Authority’s Magic Folders v1.0 into Tahoe-LAFS.
In furtherance of its mission to bring verifiable end-to-end security to everyone, Least Authority also runs a security consulting business. Least Authoritarians have performed audits and provided consultation for a variety of open source privacy or transparency related projects, including GlobalLeaks, incentive analysis on the proof-of-work puzzle, Ethash, and the gas mechanism. In the audit report presented in June 2015, the Least Authoritarians highlighted some vulnerabilities and gave valuable recommendations.
To learn more about the company and the company products and services, visit our website at leastauthority.com.
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