ProtonMail and ProtonVPN Blocked in Belarus
There is no official information regarding the blocking of ProtonMail and ProtonVPN in Belarus. However, based on this report, it appears that another “miner” (a person making bomb threats) may have tried to use encrypted email. The Belarusian government responded by blocking the IP addresses of both services.
ProtonMail confirmed in their blog that they are currently in communication with Belarusian authorities to resolve the situation. Both services prohibit illegal activities according to their terms of use, so the “miner’s” account will likely be blocked. ProtonMail does not have access to users’ encrypted messages.
How ProtonMail Encryption Works
It seems the “miner” did not fully understand how ProtonMail works. Messages are encrypted by default between ProtonMail users. To send an encrypted message to another provider, such as Gmail, you need to set an additional password and share it with the recipient so they can decrypt the email.
Do you think the “miner” actually encrypted their threats? And is there any point in encrypting threats with an extra password, then sending the password to the targets so they can… decrypt the threats? 🤨
If the “miner” created their ProtonMail account without extra security measures like Tor or a VPN, and did not disable logging in the settings, there’s a chance authorities could track them down.
Information for Regular Users
If you are a ProtonMail user and need access to your mailbox, download the Tor Browser from the official website and visit ProtonMail’s official .onion site:
ProtonVPN users will have to wait for this situation to be resolved.