Yesterday LinuxBSDos.com featured S4 and LAFS in an article on secure, distributed cloud storage. We had a bit of a quibble with the article’s first line, though:
Looking for a solution to give you an edge in the ongoing struggle between you and the authorities over the privacy of your data?
It’s important to us to note that S4 and LAFS are not only meant to thwart mass government surveillance. We seek to protect against access by the unauthorized, not merely “the authorities”. That means individual crackers, criminal organizations, corporate rivals, or non-PRISM-affiliated foreign governments just as much as the NSA! Least Authority is pro-security across the board.
There is no way that one could build an effective anti-government security system without excluding those other threats as well. Similarly, if law enforcement is authorized to see the data, then hackers also can see the data.