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Comment by dkokelley | Hacker News Reader

Is it possible that this is the result of a "dead man's switch" (DMS) set by the developer(s)? Perhaps a (continually updated) process was set up so that TrueCrypt would shut itself down if the developer were unable to prove he or she was still actively maintaining the software.

I can see a couple of scenarios where this would be wise:

A) The developer passes away, leaving nobody else to maintain TrueCrypt. Zero-day 1234 is discovered which compromises TrueCrypt. The DMS activates, depreciating the software and advising users to migrate to another alternative (why BitLocker, I have no idea).

B) The developer(s) is(are) coerced into compromising TrueCrypt in some way. As a part of the coercion, the developer(s) is(are) unable to demonstrate proof of life to the DMS, so the system nukes itself.

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What about the version 7.2 released? Either the dead man's switch:

a) knows how to change the code to make such a version

b) is updated often to keep up with the main branch

c) was developed recently

From that, "a" is wildly unlikely because coding is hard. "b" indicates a lot of work to maintain the DMS tool, which goes against the bare bones HTML page we are seeing and poor Linux instructions.

It could be something newly developed because they knew they were in danger. Or it accidentally triggered during development, which would explain why is it updated and why the warning page is lacking.

the page specifically mentions that it's ending support in may because ms is dropping xp support, though

Not quite, though. The page says "The development of TrueCrypt was ended in 5/2014 after Microsoft terminated support of Windows XP." We can infer that the two are connected, but it would be equally valid to say "The development of TrueCrypt was ended in 5/2014 after Snowden interviewed with NBC."

The reason I make this distinction is because continuing from a cautious/paranoid perspective, the DMS might not say "WARNING! Dead Man's Switch Activated! If you are reading this, I may have been compromised, and am no longer available to maintain TrueCrypt." It's possible that the landing page simply references a relatively innocuous event in the cyber security world to plausibly discontinue the software. The best evidence I have for this is the fact that TrueCrypt didn't shut down precisely when XP support was dropped. (In fact, according to http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enterprise/end-of-sup... official support ended in April, not May like the landing page states.)

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