ProtonMail raises enough money to protect service for a year

ProtonMail has raised more than $57,000 through a crowdfunding campaign on Gofundme. In their own words, that is enough to protect the service against DDO attacks for the next twelve months. To do this, the service has started a partnership with RadWare.

Last week, the Swiss service for encrypted e-mail traffic suffered severe DDO attacks. ProtonMail itself states that the attacks were so sophisticated that they are reminiscent of state hackers. To protect the service, the ProtonMail Defense Fund was set up. In five days, the target amount of $ 50,000 was more than achieved. The team behind the service says in its acceptance speech that the amount raised is enough to protect the service for the next twelve months.

In a new, expanded statement about the attacks, ProtonMail writes on its website that the DDOs continue, but are no longer capable of paralyzing the service’s infrastructure. That’s because ProtonMail has teamed up with RadWare, a company that offers protection against DDoS attacks. Last week, the RadWare DefensePipe service managed to limit the attacks so that the service could stay up and running. However, users of the service may still experience interruptions as a result of repair work. It is not yet clear who is behind the major attack. ProtonMail is calling on DDOs experts to get in touch to analyze the data of the attack.

Although the amount raised is enough for now, ProtonMail says the costs will increase in the future as the number of users of the service increases. That is why it remains possible to donate money to the fund. Any money left over will be allocated to a “Legal Defense Fund,” through which ProtonMail will fund the defense against potential future legal charges.

ProtonMail also discloses that the attack impacted the development of ProtonMail 3.0. The update was planned for the end of November, but that is no longer feasible according to the team. A new date has not yet been announced.