Google, Facebook and Twitter violate Kim Dotcom's patent

Kim DotCom announced that Twitter, Facebook, Google and other sites violate one of its patents by using a two-stage identification system. The announcement comes just days after Twitter has implemented this system on its website.

Recently, it had become possible to add another level of security to your Twitter account. In addition to the traditional couple( username / password), the site can use the mobile phone of the user, by sending an SMS to confirm that he is the right person. If this system is new on Twitter, other sites such as Google and Facebook, are already adopting it  for some time. But the inventor, Kim Dotcom, says that the two-stage identification is subject to a patent owned it since 1997.

He has published a link to the patent in question, registered under his name, which describes the use of a "transaction authorization number" that must transmit the user to another device from which it tries to connect. Therefor the patent seems to belong to him, and it is hard to ignore the irony with Kim DotCom being considered a hacker and an enemy of the United States while the people behind Twitter, Google and Facebook are considered the Superheros of this century.

I innovated two-factor-authentication (MonKey), connected cars (MegaCar), automated stock trading (Trendax) & cloud storage (Megaupload).
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) May 23, 2013

Google, Facebook, Twitter, Citibank, etc. offer Two-Step-Authentication.Massive IP infringement by U.S. companies. My innovation. My patent
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) May 22, 2013

I never sued them. I believe in sharing knowledge & ideas for the good of society. But I might sue them now cause of what the U.S. did to me
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) May 22, 2013

Google, Facebook, Twitter, I ask you for help. We are all in the same DMCA boat. Use my patent for free. But please help funding my defense.
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) May 22, 2013

Why Mega is different?

Dropbox, Box, rapidshare, filesonic, google drive and Mega are services that allow you to put your data on the cloud for free.

Now of course when we consider to put our data on the cloud, our biggest concerns is security. And whether this data is for enterprise or personal use, it always feels like compromising your privacy desire when you decide to put it on the public internet.

When uploading your data on the could, it will exposed to attacks at two points:

• in-flight :when it is being transmitted over the security of the public internet.
• At rest :When it is on the cloud servers. 

Like every other service, Mega employs cryptography to protect data in-flight by wrapping communication with SSL encryption. So, there is nothing new in this part.

Why Mega is different? Why I trust it?

But Mega is unique in its approach to handling encryption at rest. Instead of storing encryption keys for a client’s data within Mega’s infrastructure, Mega gives their cryptography back to their users.
So Mega users encrypt their own data after sending it to Mega’s servers, and store keys locally such that even Mega can’t read their data.

Which mean that Mega can't and is not able to hand your content to
authorities. 

In simpler words: users keep their own keys and send data in the form of encrypted cipher text rather than unencrypted plain text. And it seems like Kim is very comfortable with Mega's security since he's offering 14000$ per vulnerability.

Kim Dotcom @KimDotcom

The #Mega crypto & security REWARD PROGRAM is live. Earn up to 10,000 EURO per vulnerability. https://mega.co.nz/#blog_6

After falling victim or its success for the first few days of its launching (Overloaded servers), Mega is functionning perfectly and users are satisfied as Kim Dotcom state in a tweet that raised the question of : "What's next?"

 

Rising from Mega upload's ashes : Mega is born.

From his safe haven in New Zealand, Kim DotCom launches in one hour a new file-sharing service with military-strength encryption. Mega, will be similar to MegaUpload but with a twist.

The service will offer 50GB of storage for free and three Pro tiers of 500GB to 4TB for $13-$40 a month.

 How it is different?

The difference that makes a difference is that all files are encrypted using a 2048-bit RSA key. What this means effectively is that Dotcom cannot be accused of knowingly storing copyrighted materials because he cannot technically know the content of the files stored on MEGA—only the user who uploaded the files and/or possesses the key can.

For a full review about Mega please refer to this article.