Silent Circle, an email provider which guarantees end-to-end secure email, has announced that it's going the same way as Edward Snowden's beloved Lavabit and shuttering over concerns of external pressures.


In a blog post, Silent Circle's CTO Jon Callas explained that the move is a result of *cough* outside *cough* pressures that prompted Lavabit to close up shop. He also suggests that the insecure nature of email protocols is a problem, too, but realistically this boils down to pre-emptively avoiding trouble from the authorities. Indeed, Silent Circle says it hadn't received any "subpoenas, warrants, security letters, or anything else." Yet.


But speaking to TechCrunch, Silent Circle's CEO Michael Janke admitted that some of its high-profile users would likely have authorities sniffing around soon. In the meantime, Silent Circle's phone, video and text encryption systems are still up and running.

For our complete ongoing coverage of Edward Snowden and the NSA, head here.

[Silent Circle via TechCrunch]