TrueCrypt Project Problems
Finally, a story for resident conspiracy theorists that has truth behind it, an impact on the world, and may actually mean something.TrueCrypt, the standout semi-open source multiplatform full-disk-encryption software package, has acted all squirrelly and more or less shut the the project down, blaming it, somewhat hilariously, on the end of Microsoft's Windows XP support. All this while a paid (and long awaited) audit of TrueCrypt has been nearing completion.
Discussed at lots of places including lifehacker , Slashdot , SoylentNews , and reddit .
This is really troubling for lots of reasons. The audit was deemed necessary because TC's authorship and operation were shrouded in mystery. (the two main developers are anonymous and go by the pseudonyms "ennead" and "syncon") This doesn't help any in that regard. What happened? Loss of control of the domain? Website defacement? Warrant canary?
Fiction: Do you remember the scene near the end of the movie Scarface where the group of criminals conspired in an attempt to remove an individual speaking out against them before he spoke at the UN? (UN - IIRC)
Reality: Do you remember the individual who died just shortly prior to speaking out about pacemakers (and possibly other technology) and how they are vulnerable to hacker attacks?
Possibility: Sn0wd3n and/or others about to deliver a speech which mentions the useful tool TrueCrypt to a wider audience - TrueCrypt project dies.
I'm interested in the results of the complete TC code audit, but give this comparison some thought.
However, I was concerned about the project when releases ceased after 7.1a. There were steady releases up until that time and I'm curious if 7.1a was released as low hanging fruit with a backdoor and the site was allowed to operate for a few years before closing shop when the hunger for enough interesting people who downloaded/used TC was satisfied.
TrueCrypt WTF @ Bruce Schneier blog
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/05/truecrypt_wtf.html
Also contains TC posts:
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/05/friday_squid_bl_426.html