Guerrilla Mail

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Guerrilla Mail is a free disposable email address service launched in 2006. Visitors are automatically assigned a random email address upon visiting the site.

Contents

Features

Guerrilla Mail randomly generates disposable email addresses. [1] Disposable email addresses may be used as a means of spam prevention. [2] They may also be used if the user does not wish to give a real email, for example if they fear a data breach. Emails sent to addresses are kept for one hour before deletion. The site offers some choice of email domain names. [2] [3]

History

Guerrilla Mail was founded in 2006, in Chicago. [4]

Privacy-centered services saw an up-tick in public interest after the global surveillance disclosures beginning in 2013, especially concerning attention brought to materials leaked by Edward Snowden. According to The Mercury News in 2014, "[Guerrilla Mail] has done nearly half of its business in the past year". [4]

In December 2013, a Harvard College sophomore and Quincy House resident Eldo Kim used Guerrilla Mail to send a bomb threat to offices associated with Harvard, including the Harvard University Police Department and The Harvard Crimson , in order to delay a final exam. [5] [6] [7] It was alleged in an affidavit that the student accessed Guerrilla Mail through Tor, a fact that might've been given away in the IP address present in the email header. [8] [9]

In June 2017, it was revealed through court documents that the FBI used a social engineering technique known as phishing to target a Guerrilla Mail user. The case was unique, as it was the "first public example of the feds using a controversial update to a law allowing searches on users of anonymizing tools like Tor". [10] [11]

As of November 4, 2020, Guerrilla Mail stated on Twitter that their site had been taken down by their hosting provider, OVHCloud, due to a law enforcement request which OVHCloud refused to provide details about. [12] The site has since been reinstated.

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References

  1. ↑ Greenberg, Andy (17 June 2014). "How to Anonymize Everything You Do Online". Wired . Condé Nast. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  2. 1 2 "How to Avoid Spam—Using Disposable Contact Information". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028 . Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  3. ↑ "Get a Free One-Hour Email Address with Guerrilla Mail". Lifehacker. 22 October 2011. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  4. 1 2 Somerville, Heather (27 September 2014). "Tech responds to growing calls for Internet anonymity". The Mercury News . Digital First Media. Archived from the original on 30 April 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  5. ↑ "Harvard student Eldo Kim charged in final-exam bomb hoax". CNN . 18 December 2013.
  6. ↑ Fandos, Nicholas P. (17 December 2013). "Harvard Sophomore Charged in Bomb Threat". The Harvard Crimson . Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  7. ↑ "Harvard student made bomb threats to get out of exam, cops say". www.cbsnews.com. 17 December 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  8. ↑ "Eldo Kim Charged in Bomb Threat Case, Unlikely To Get Jail Time | News | The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  9. ↑ Brandom, Russell (18 December 2013). "FBI agents tracked Harvard bomb threats despite Tor". The Verge. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  10. ↑ Fox-Brewster, Thomas (13 June 2017). "How The FBI Hacked A Dark Web Shopper Plotting A Mail Bomb Hit". Forbes . Retrieved 17 June 2017.
  11. ↑ "In The Matter Of The Search Of: The Use Of A Network Investigative Technique For A Computer Accessing Email Account". DocumentCloud . Retrieved 17 June 2017.
  12. ↑ @GuerrillaMail (4 November 2020). "It looks like or hosting provider, @OVHcloud, decided to shut down our services. The reason was that they received a law enforcement request (which they didn't forward to us, and refuse to share details about)" (Tweet). Retrieved 12 November 2020– via Twitter.
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