Tor developer Isis Agora Lovecruft publicly accuses the FBI of harassment

[steven36]

Lovecruft, a self-described ‘anarchist, hacker and physicist’ said the ordeal started in November 2015

 

 

It reportedly started with a house visit from the FBI and escalated to the threat of a federal subpoena. For one member of the Tor Project's core development team, named Isis Agora Lovecruft, the past six months have been characterised by stress, confusion and underhand threats at the hands of US law enforcement. Now, she has publicly accused the agency of harassment.

 

According to Lovecruft, a self-described 'anarchist, hacker and physicist', the ordeal started in November last year when an FBI agent called Mark Burnett paid a visit to her family home. Finding no-one home, the G-man reportedly left a card with an additional phone number penned in. A note read: "Please call me."

 

What followed, based on an in-depth testimony published online by Lovecruft, was a period of uncertainty – as the hacker balanced a move to Germany with meeting the demands of an increasingly invasive FBI – who would give no reason as to why exactly the meeting was even needed.

 

Lovecruft, who quickly involved a lawyer, wrote in the post on her website: "Burnett said the FBI simply wanted to ask me some questions." When speaking directly to the hired legal counsel, the FBI agent reportedly said: "If we happen to run into her on the street, we're gonna' be asking her some questions without you present."

 

Furthermore, referencing a potential meeting, the agent said: "We would strongly prefer to meet her in person. We have teams in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Atlanta keeping an eye out for her."

The demands

According to Lovecruft, discussions then started about what the FBI was investigating. Naturally, the conversation turned to Tor network – used by privacy-conscious users to help stay anonymous while surfing the web and partly funded by the US government.

 

"My lawyer and I discussed what the FBI could possibly want," Lovecruft wrote. "Theories ranged from attempted entrapment, to the recent and completely unethical Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) attacks on the live Tor network, to a Grand Jury subpoena for someone else, to some shady request for a backdoor in some software I contribute to."

 

Indeed, Lovecruft is a well-known figure in GitHub circles and has over 350 followers on the popular open-source programming website. She continued: "We honestly could not come up with any coherent rationale for why the FBI would suddenly decide to come after me, as, to my knowledge, I have done nothing which should warrant any interest besides my contributions to open source encryption tools."

 

As previously reported by IBTimes UK, the FBI has worked alongside Carnegie Mellon to fund cutting-edge research into how the protections offered by the Tor network could be weakened. Still, despite ongoing conversations between lawyers and the FBI, Lovecruft said the agency has refused to elaborate as to why she was wanted for questioning.

 

 

Quote

 

I wonder if the FBI is going to start making A Thing of harassing developers of encryption software that they don't like.

— i∮ͥₛ f(t)dt (@isislovecruft) May 4, 2016

 

 

The voicemails

According to the testimony, roughly two months later Lovecruft's lawyer received a voicemail from a separate Atlanta-based FBI agent called Kelvin Porter saying the 'problem' had been fixed and that a face-to-face was no longer urgent. However, in a fresh update to the blog post on 4 May, the Tor developer claimed the FBI has been back in contact with her counsel.

 

"Are you the point of contact for serving a subpoena?" the agent reportedly said, adding that a meeting with Lovecruft is now needed to clear up her "potential involvement in a matter".

 

In the blog post, Lovecruft wrote: "Is this really how the United States has decided to treat American tech workers? Am I just the forerunner in a larger campaign by the FBI to personally go after developers of encryption software which annoys them?"

 

In a post on Twitter dated 4 May, the Tor Project said: "We support our colleague Isis." However, the organisation did not respond to a request for additional comment. As noted on the Tor Project's website, this is not the first time a member has been 'harassed' by the FBI.

 

Quote

 

We support our colleague Isis. Please read her blog post. #solidarity https://t.co/veSkuC5FXy

— torproject (@torproject) May 4, 2016

 

In response to the accusations, an FBI spokesperson told IBTimes UK: "The FBI, as a general policy, does not confirm nor deny investigations, nor comment on investigative activity unless it's a matter of public record (charges associated with an arrest, for example). If someone is alleging harassment of any kind that should be brought to the attention of the government, though it's unclear what specific activity is even being characterised as harassment

 

The Source

 

[Sylence]

That name tho...(ISIS) 

[flitox]

7 hours ago, saeed_dc said:

That name tho...(ISIS) 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isis

 

still way better than being called jihad

[Sylence]

8 minutes ago, flitox said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isis

 

still way better than being called jihad

 

They call you jihad? 

well it's not really pronounced jihad, the correct form which is pronounced is jahad, I dunno why they write it like that..so weird

[flitox]

nope not me haha but i know there is at least a brazilian dude with that name (and his parent weren't neither of arab origin nor even muslim!!)

[Reefa]

Isis Agora Lovecruft is a lead software developer for Tor and has worked on Tor for many years, as well as on a variety of other security and encryption products, including Open Whisper Systems and the LEAP Encryption Access Project. And, apparently, the FBI would really like to talk to her, but won't tell her (or her lawyer) exactly why. It's really worth reading her whole post, which starts with an FBI agent showing up at her parents home and leaving a card, and then later phoning her mother's cell phone while she was at work a few days later. Lovecruft had a lawyer reach out to the FBI agent in question, which resulted in an odd discussion:

 

Quote

Word got to my lawyer in the US, who decided to call FBI Special Agent Mark Burnett, on that Friday, saying that he represented me and my family. Burnett said the FBI simply wanted to ask me some questions. My lawyer responded by stating that, as my invoked representation, all questions should be directed to him rather than to me or my family. The agent agreed, paused while some muffled male voices were heard in the background, and asked to call back in five minutes.

Five minutes later, Burnett called back and said, “I don’t believe you actually represent her.” Burnett stated additionally that a phone call from me might suffice, but that the FBI preferred to meet with me in person. After a pause he said, “But… if we happen to run into her on the street, we’re gonna be asking her some questions without you present.”

 

Complicating matters was the fact that Lovecruft was deep into the process of moving permanently to Germany, and actually had just been visiting her family in the US. She worried about whether or not she'd even be able to leave, though eventually flew back to Europe without incident. She notes that once back in Germany, she was focused on getting all the documentation in order to get her official residence visa in Germany when the FBI again came looking for her:

 

Quote

The day before my appointment, I spoke with my lawyer. He had received another call, this time from a FBI Special Agent Kelvin Porter in Atlanta.

Lawyer: Hello?

Agent: Hello, this is Special Agent Kelvin Porter at the FBI field offices in Atlanta. I’m calling concerning your client.

Lawyer: Yes. Why are you trying to contact her?

Agent: Well… as before… we would strongly prefer to meet her in person. We have teams in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Atlanta keeping an eye out for her.

Lawyer: Your colleague mentioned last time that you would accept a phone call?

Agent: We would strongly prefer to meet her in person. We… uh… have some documents we’d like her opinion on.

Lawyer: Umm…? What documents?

Agent: Anyway, if she’s available to meet with us, that would be great, thanks.

 

It didn’t exactly help with the stress of applying for a residence visa to know that there were teams in five cities across America keeping an eye out for me. However, I’m glad to say that, the next day, my residence visa was approved. Eight hours afterwards, my laywer received a voicemail saying:

 

Quote

Agent: Hello this is Special Agent Kelvin Porter, we spoke two days ago regarding your client. Umm… well… so the situation with the documents… it’s umm… it’s all fixed. I mean, we would of course still be happy to meet with your client if she’s willing, but the problem has… uh… yeah… been fixed. And uh… yeah. Just let us know if she wants to set up a meeting.

 

So, that seemed to settle things for the time being -- though still made her nervous. That last conversation happened in January. But it appears that last week, the FBI came knocking again, and apparently said they want to serve her with a subpoena.

 

Quote

The FBI has contacted my lawyer again. This time, they said, “She should meet with one of our agents in San Francisco to talk. Otherwise, are you the point of contact for serving a subpoena? She’s not the target of investigation, but, uh… we uh… need her to clear up her involvement or… uh… potential involvement in a matter.”

 

She's (reasonably) worried that whatever the FBI is planning to ask her about or serve her with comes with a gag order and she won't be able to speak about it. She also notes that she's got a personal warrant canary, which might be worth watching for obvious reasons.

But, honestly, the part that struck me as most interesting about all of this is the incredible amount of stress that this obviously caused for her. It doesn't matter if the FBI says she's "not a target," having the FBI come looking for you can really shake you up. Especially when they won't provide any details:

 

Quote

I didn’t talk to anyone who wasn’t already in regular contact with me, fearing I might endanger them — some thug might show up at their mom’s door or make some threats to their lawyers — and I didn’t want to risk harming people I care about. It hurt to not tell my friends what was happening. I felt gagged and frightened. I wanted to play chess in the park. I wanted to learn duets on the piano. I wanted to ride bicycles through the ancient groves in the park in the endless Californian sunshine. I wanted to bring homemade vegan gluten-free brownies and stickers from collectives in France to my friends at the EFF. To be selfish, I wanted to read the number theory papers I’d just downloaded and play with a new pairing-based cryptography library I’d just been given the source to, but I couldn’t do those things either, simply because I was too stressed out to think straight.

I got absolutely no work done.

 

That, right there, is a clear description of the chilling effects that this kind of thing can cause. And that's a shame. As she later notes, her paychecks for working on Tor come from the US government. She's not a spy or a criminal. She's working on software that makes everyone safer. And no matter what the reason for the FBI's interest, it's ridiculous that someone should have to go through this kind of process.

 

source

[Batu69]

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