
Encryptica Foundation | Free One Month VISP Account Giveaway - _exec
TO: community@HN
FROM: sysop@encryptica.org
SUBJECT: Free vISP one month account giveaway; Email sysop@encryptica.org with subject line &quot;REGISTER HN&quot; and you will receive your credentials in the next 72 hours. We are offering a one month give away to HN users to test out our network and iron out any issues.
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[Part II]

We use the 2nd Amendment (Cryptography is still classified as munitions by the
State Department) to protect your 1st Amendment rights on the Internet. Yet we
cannot protect you against alphabet soup agencies such as the NSA and the FSB.
It's not that our hands are tied, it's that this isn't the 1990s anymore and
cyberwarfare and cybercrime are a nation-state ping-pong game. They are above
our threat model, they are one layer of abstraction above us legally speaking,
and we do not have contingency plans against them. If anything, being an
American non-profit NGO, they are required to protect us as we are an American
legal entity. From our experience whatever data they are seeking (depending on
importance), they will obtain one way or another. We are not statists either;
we simply think a well-calibrated threat model is paramount to running a
venture like ours. Last but not least, they themselves may be users of our
service to conduct their job online discretely. Note that we are not here to
fight the man on your behalf. If you use our service to send bomb threats to
universities, we _will_ hunt you down.

What we do protect you against is "Snoopy". Snoopy could be your ISP DJ'ing
your DNS requests. Snoopy could be your housemates snooping on the Wifi
network or running a rogue AP attack. Snoopy could be your boss or employer
blocking certain websites. Snoopy could be services that are georestricted to
certain areas for no reason at all. We offer quasi-bulletproof anonymity and
privacy on the Internet. Snoopy could be your university banning services like
Spotify. Snoopy could be the rest of the world charging Australia 30%+ extra
on all services / products because Australia is a continent. Snoopy could be
your mobile service provider obstructing VoIP or Skype traffic on their data
network. Snoopy could also be your TV provider not happy with your Netflix
technicolored bits traversing their wires, and so must be throttled down. We
are anti-DPI yet use DPI as well for the benefit of our users (QoS for
instance).

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tl;dr we are a vISP that created a quasi-anonymous Tor/OpenVPN chimera; we
used to live in the dark net, now we're trying the clearnet interwebs; we're
giving out free accounts to those interested. Fire an email to
sysop@encryptica.org with subject line "REGISTER REDDIT" and you will be
credentialed in 72 hours max.

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[Part I]

We are a vISP, originally from the Dark Net, opening up trial accounts on the
Internet/ClearNet to test the waters.

We a non-profit NGO (social enterprise?) that is still in the process of
acquiring 503(c) status in the United States.

We are testing out a new quasi-anonymous network design based on OpenVPN and
Tor (more connection methods to our access points will follow in the future,
such as IKEv2 and SSTP).

Technical Details: Initially one connects to the Tor network via the Tor
Browser Bundle, once the connection to the Tor network is established, the
user instructs the OpenVPN client to connect to our OpenVPN server (using our
configuration file), which is sitting behind a .onion Hidden Service; the
traffic is then forced to exit through one of our Tor Exit Nodes instead of a
possibly malicious Tor Exit Nodes that tracks users or performs MITM on HTTP
traffic or simply tcpdump.exe's your traffic for fun and profit. We provide
DNS resolution through our service to avoid leaks and preserve privacy.

We do not know your IP address, you do not know our server's IP address, and
nobody can prove that activity exiting through our Tor Exit nodes is our
users' activities and not a user on the Tor network not belonging to our vISP
(to rephrase: The Tor Exit Nodes are run by us to save the user the trouble of
avoiding malicious Exit Nodes, to increase anonymity and privacy they are also
shared with the rest of the Tor network; a Tor user may exit through our exit
nodes even though they do are not one of our users). Please note that while
connected to our network, you will also be able to resolve .onion addresses.

We don't keep logs, we are a decentralized and distributed team of netsec,
cipherpunks, activists, journalists, privacy / security / encryption /
anonymity / paranoid schizophrenic fanatics spread around the globe,
nevertheless our "Foundation" is HQ in the USA as: a. We're not required to
keep logs by law (and we are not able to) b. We're "protected" by some of the
best LE agencies in the world. When you incorporate abroad, these same
agencies are in your threat model. In our case, their threat while present, is
diminished.

Once we obtain non-profit status by the IRS your monthly donations ($29.95
{note: you are under no obligation to sign up for a paid account after the
free month account expires}) will be tax deductible. We are also thinking of
starting the "Church of the Free Bits" with a mission statement of protecting
users' rights' on the Internet, keeping bits colorless, encouraging anonymous
free speech and freedom of expression on the Internet, and enhancing the
user's Internet experience via the use of cryptography, encryption, mix-
networks, True(tm) Net Neutrality and privacy enhancing technologies.

We used to not have a website, not even on the dark net (word of mouth), now
we must apparently. We are sticking with the informal no website policy for
now (or WordPress'ing it at some point). Don't judge us, front-end is not our
domain nor focus. We are not very Social. We should have a blog soon however.

Don't confuse us with "VPN providers" or "Residential proxies". We are a
Virtual ISP, and while we may use some similar technologies, we are in the
RiseUp / Telecomix league, not your fly-by-night VPN/VPS provider. Don't
confuse us with a solution you can roll yourself either; we have X users, as
long as you stick to the Tor browser bundle rules you can remain anonymous. If
you roll your own you're the only one originating from that IP address.

10% of our monthly profits go to EFF, ACLU, The Pirate Party. The rest is our
salaries and reinvestment in the Foundation. We are audited once a year
technically (certified to not be keeping logs), are legally insured, and
welcome volunteers.

We are still at the MVP stage and our setup reflects it. Our SLA is far from
99.999%, try 85%-90%. That said we are experimental as f*ck and we break
things often and break things fast, yet aspire to be digital Bodhisattvas who
do no evil.

If you have any feedback or comments, drop us a line: sysop@encryptica.org. We
answer email (for now).

[Gentle Reminder: We're giving away free accounts: email sysop@encryptica.org
with subject line "REGISTER HN" and you will receive your credentials in the
next 72 hours as well as the instructions. We are offering a one month give
away to interested HN users to test out our network and iron out any remaining
issues.]

PS. We provide perma-free accounts (aside from this offer) for .edu / .ac.uk /
academia / military personnel stationed abroad / veterans, and Australians
(no, really).

Ask away if you have any questions, though keep in mind our answers are
polymorphic, we are still building our infrastructure, and our policies are
still taking shape and form, according to user demand, local laws, and our own
paranoia. Our service is not completely secure yet and may be hackable (it's
an MVP before we move to big iron), we only ask for an email address at the
moment for authentication purposes, your password is automatically generated,
nothing more.

