Swisscows Secure Email Service Blocked

During monitoring of the registry of banned websites, it was discovered that the Swiss secure email service Swisscows.email has been blocked. The restriction of access to the service was initiated by the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia. The same decision also blocks a specific IP address, which may also be associated with Swisscows.email.

The email service was added to the registry using a wildcard (“mask”), meaning that all its domains and subdomains are subject to blocking. The decision to restrict access was made on July 4 of this year, and the block was implemented on the same day. The aforementioned IP address was added to the registry a day later.

The exact reason for the ban on the email service is still unknown. Typically, such cases are related to the distribution of false bomb threat emails. However, it is also possible that the block is connected to events in Ukraine, as the company’s website features an appeal asking for donations to support the country.

About Swisscows

Swisscows is a search engine that fundamentally does not store user search data. It was launched in 2014 by Hulbee AG, later renamed Swisscows, and is based in Egnach, Switzerland. The search engine uses semantic data recognition to provide faster answers to queries and does not store user data. The email service was launched by the company in 2022, alongside its own VPN service.

Swisscows.email is positioned as “an alternative solution for private and business email traffic, protected by innovative and most secure encryption.” The company assures that their email is 100% inaccessible to anyone except the user.

“No one but you will have access to your mailbox — not even us!” the email service’s website states. “Servers are located in Switzerland and, therefore, far from the NSA and the EU! Email is encrypted at the highest security level when sent!”