Open-source project Crypton seeks to make encryption easier

An open-source software project aims to give software developers a simple way to wrap encryption into their applications to thwart online surveillance efforts.

The project, called Crypton, comes from SpiderOak, a company known for its Dropbox-like online storage and synchronization service. SpiderOak differentiates itself by encrypting data in a such a way that none of its employees can access it, unlike Dropbox, where a few employees do have limited access to some kinds of data.

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Crypton started out as an internal tool that SpiderOak needed for some of its other software projects, said CEO Ethan Oberman. The company wanted a way for data to be securely encrypted without the need for users to download a separate program.

SpiderOak also wanted to create an easy way for application developers to utilize encryption, which can be notoriously complex and prone to implementation errors.

"We wanted to develop more of a privacy platform that other developers and companies could use to integrate privacy in their applications without having to be cryptographers," Oberman said. "We want people to understand the power of privacy and understand it is not an interference and not an inhibitor to product development."

Crypton is essentially a framework that allows applications to encrypt data within a web browser before it is sent to a remote server.

Advancements in web browsers over the last few years have made Crypton possible. The JavaScript engines in web browsers are much more powerful and can handle intensive encryption tasks such as generating the key needed to lock and unlock encrypted data, Oberman said.

Users have peace of mind that even if a company was subpoenaed by a court, the company would not be able to decrypt the data, making it useless, Oberman said. The encryption keys remain on a user's computer.

The same approach is being used by Mega, the online storage service from Kim Dotcom that succeeded his controversial Megaupload service.

How secure data is from prying eyes and spies has become increasingly discussed after extensive U.S. government surveillance programs were revealed in June by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

"There are portions of our digital lives or our documents or things that are important to us that we do really want to retain privacy over," Oberman said.

SpiderOak plans to use Crypton for a secure instant messaging application and collaboration program it is working on, Oberman said. Crypton will work with desktop, web and mobile applications.

An early version of the code is on GitHub, and a more complete version should be available in about six weeks. SpiderOak plans to license it under the AGPL version 3, which allows people to use Crypton for open-source projects for free.

If a company wants to build a closed-source commercial service with Crypton and not contribute code changes back to the community, it can choose to pay SpiderOak a license fee, Oberman said.

Send news tips and comments to jeremy_kirk@idg.com. Follow me on Twitter: @jeremy_kirk.

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Data.gov gets an open-source revamp

IDG News Service - The U.S. government's portal for the data it creates, Next.Data.gov, is getting a revamp that should make it easier to view and reuse government data.

The update should also help federal agencies comply with a White House executive order issued in May to make government data machine-readable by default.

The beta version of the site, now available for user testing under a subdomain of Next.Data.gov, features more visualization of government data, an expanded section for communities of interest, and a stream of examples of government data usage by third parties.

"It looks different, and it is exciting that they are pulling in more information about how data is used and how people are talking about" government data, said John Wonderlich, policy director for the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to foster greater government openness and transparency through the use of the Internet. "The first look is encouraging."

An early initiative from the Obama administration, Data.gov was launched in 2009 as a way to collect and provide a portal for data sets created by U.S. federal agencies, so they can be viewed and reused by the public.

In much the same way that the Defense Department's GPS (Global Positioning System) data has fueled the growth of geolocation-based businesses, so too should these additional government data sets generate new businesses, President Barack Obama has argued.

The site's popularity has steadily been growing. In May, it received 213,000 visitors, more than twice the number of visitors in May 2012.

Data.gov now offers more than 70,000 data sets, from 174 agencies and agency offices. It also offers almost 300 APIs (application programming interfaces) for agency services.

Data.gov's challenge is to ensure that "as much data as possible ends up there and that agencies take seriously the requirement that they are open with their information," Wonderlich said.

The White House charged its Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to develop the site. The OMB then had the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) oversee the project. The General Services Administration (GSA) manages the operations and development of Data.gov.

For the update, "The team studied the usage patterns on Data.gov and found that visitors were hungry for examples of how data are used," wrote Nick Sinai, U.S. deputy chief technology officer and Ryan Panchadsaram, senior adviser to the U.S. technology officer, in a co-bylined blog post announcing the update.

The site will include a stream of blog posts, tweets, quotes and other sources showing how people and organizations are using government data feeds. "It certainly helps the Data.gov brand to have people understand how data is being used in the world," Wonderlich said.

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2012 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

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