Cryptome shut down

Information is still sketchy, but it seems that intelligence-related website cryptome.org has been shut down by its Internet Service Provider, Verio (a company owned by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation). The website, which has been given two weeks to find another ISP, has posted a copy of Verio’s termination letter.

An article published today on Macworld has been given the inadequate headline “Verio to shut off controversial Web site” (the controversy only concerns the right of individuals to publish material which their governments would prefer keeping secret). Macworld quotes Steve Bellovin, a Columbia University professor, as saying: “If you wanted to go down the conspiracy theory route, you’d say some government agency pressured [Verio], but we don’t know this”. If this is indeed the case, the words of Bill Moyers seem even more uncannily prophetic than before.