ProtonMail, a Switzerland-based encrypted email service, is still fighting against an “extremely powerful DDoS attack” that has left its service largely unavailable since Tuesday.
ProtonMail is one of a number of “zero-knowledge”, end-to-end encrypted email services that have sprung up in Switzerland and Germany..
The company offers a webmail system designed by boffins and CERN to withstand surveillance by the world’s intelligence agencies.
In a statement posted to a hastily erected blog site, ProtonMail said the powerful attack by unknown parties has also inflicted collateral damage on third-party organisations.
“The attackers began by flooding our IP addresses. That quickly expanded to the data centre in Switzerland where we have our servers. In the process of attacking us, several other tech companies and even some banks were knocked offline temporarily.”
Despite our best efforts, we have been unable to stop the attack but we are working non-stop to get back online.
Even though access is limited, an important thing to note is that our core end-to-end encryption holds strong and is 100 per cent untouched. All user data is fine and safe.
The motives, much less the perps behind the attack, remain unclear. ProtonMail is using its official Twitter feed to provide status updates.
It used this channel to reassure customers that their “data is secure and untouchedâ€Â, even though access to its site is “unlikelyâ€Â, before confirming on Thursday morning that its was under renewed attack.
The service is currently looking for another data center in Switzerland to host it, though “many are afraid due to the magnitude of the attack†against it.
It is not known where the DDoS attack originated from. As of this writing, ProtonMail’s website is still down.
