Russia blocks access to ProtonMail servers after bomb threats

Russia has been blocking ProtonMail’s mail servers since the end of February. Russian users can therefore no longer receive or send e-mails. The site is still loading. The blockade follows anonymous bomb threats that were sent to the police by email at the end of January.

According to a Russian blog, Russian internet providers have blocked the servers after an order from the security service FSB. A total of 26 internet addresses have been blocked. The block also affects some Tor servers that anonymize connections over that network. For blocking, the providers use bgp blackhole filtering. That is, internet traffic sent to the servers is simply discarded.

ProtonMail director Andy Yen tells TechCrunch that the blockage is “extremely sneaky.” “They block access to ProtonMail’s mail servers. So most Russian mail servers can no longer send mail to ProtonMail, but a Russian user can still get into his or her inbox.”

Yen says ProtonMail is working on technical measures to allow “continuous” access to the service. According to Yen, the blockade coincided with protests last Sunday. Russia is working on a separate internet, in case ‘foreign powers’ separate Russia from the worldwide internet. About 15,000 people protested against this in Moscow. Then the first people noticed problems with ProtonMail, TechCrunch writes.

According to the FSB, ProtonMail’s anonymous, encrypted mail service facilitated anonymous bomb threats in Russia. At the end of January, all schools and health facilities in the city of Perm were closed due to anonymous bomb threats. Ultimately, these reports turned out to be false. In order to thwart the sending of anonymous bomb threats, Russia is now blocking the entire mail provider.

This is not the first time that the Russian country has blocked a communication service. Previously, access to Telegram and LinkedIn was also temporarily disabled.