Encryption tool TrueCrypt may be resurrected by security audit group

In the wake of the sudden demise of personal encryption tool TrueCrypt, the auditing group who crowd funded an audit of the package may be bringing it back from the grave. Audit group founder and Johns Hopkins professor Matthew Green is reportedly attached to the program, but Green claims that "we're not going to commit to a 'fork' yet."

TrueCrypt was an open-source freeware application used for on-the-fly encryption. It could create a virtual encrypted disk within a file, encrypt a disk partition, or the entire storage device with pre-boot authentication. In the wake of the Snowden revelations, a non-profit agency was crowdfunded and created to audit the utility's encryption methodology, with the first phase of the report having been completed in April.

Speculation about the shutdown yesterday was wide-ranging, with the most prevalent theory being that the shutdown was a "warrant canary," meaning that the group may have received a subpoena from US courts demanding encryption keys. Internet skeptics believe that the group may have chosen to shut down, rather than fight or concede the keys to the court.

Reuters claims that Green and the audit team are continuing the evaluation of the encryption code. Additionally, the group will attempt to de-obfuscate the license and the legal issues surrounding it before publishing a fork to the utility.

By Electronista Staff

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Encryption tool TrueCrypt may be resurrected by security audit group