Its initial creation stemmed from an argument in a Finnish newsgroup over whether people should be required to tie their real name to their online communications.
The result provided Internet users with the ability to send e-mail messages and post to Usenet newsgroups without revealing their identities.
In the summer of 1994, word spread online of the Penet remailer being compromised, with the announcement being made at the hacker convention DEF CON II.
Last year she organized a round table discussion with Phil Zimmermann and Presence, and revealed that the Anonymous remailer anon.penet.fi was compromised.
Claiming that a file had been stolen from one of the Church's internal computer servers and posted to the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology by a Penet user, representatives of the Church contacted Interpol, who in turn contacted the Finnish police, who issued a search warrant demanding that Julf hand over data on the users of the Penet remailer.
In August 1996, a British newspaper, The Observer, published an article describing the Penet remailer as a major hub of child pornography, quoting a United States FBI investigator named Toby Tyler as saying that Penet was responsible for between 75% and 90% of the child pornography being distributed on the Internet.
He also informed the Observer of an investigation already performed by the Finnish police which had found no evidence that child pornography was being remailed through Penet.
[citation needed] In September 1996, an anonymous user posted the confidential writings of the Church of Scientology through the Penet remailer.
[10] Facing much criticism and many attacks, and unable to guarantee the anonymity of Penet users, Julf shut down the remailer in September 1996.