Message Regarding the ProtonMail DDoS Attacks

[steve2470]

https://protonmail.com/blog/protonmail-ddos-attacks/

We are happy to announce today that after several days of intense work, we have largely mitigated the DDoS attacks against us. These attacks took ProtonMail offline making it impossible to access emails, but did not breach our security. At present, attacks are continuing, but they are no longer capable of knocking ProtonMail offline for extended periods of time. As our infrastructure recovers over the next several days, there may still be intermittent service interruptions, but we have now largely restored all services. Our successful recovery was only possible due to the valiant efforts of IP-Max and Radware, and we would like to sincerely thank them.

It has now been one week since the first attack was launched against ProtonMail. Since then, we have been subject to the largest and most extensive cyberattack in Switzerland, with hundreds of other companies also hit as collateral damage. In addition to hitting ProtonMail, the attackers also took down the datacenter housing our servers and attacked several upstream ISPs, causing serious damage. More about the attack which hit us can be found in our earlier statement which is copied below.

Throughout the past week, our team has worked tirelessly to restore service because we know in addition to over half a million regular users, there are also activists, dissidents, and journalists who rely upon ProtonMail for their communications. Mitigating an attack of this size and complexity is not easy and while we managed to restore services several times throughout the week, it was not until around 3 AM Geneva time on November 8th that we finally managed to gain control over the situation.

Rescuing ProtonMail was not a solo effort, and we will forever be grateful to everyone who came to our assistance. Within Switzerland alone, dozens of companies and individuals came forward to help us once news of the attack spread. In particular, we want to thank the network experts from IP-Max in Geneva who volunteered their time and expertise. Without their heroic 18 hour effort, it would not have been possible for ProtonMail to come back up so quickly in the face of such a massive attack. During the rescue operation, the IP-Max team accomplished the impossible, and managed to connect a brand new direct line from our datacenter to the main PoP in Zurich, 114 kilometers away, on a Saturday, in less than 18 hours! Nobody else in Switzerland could have accomplished that. We would also like to thank Level 3 Communications for arranging an emergency IP Transit, and Patrick Muller and Pim van Pelt for their assistance.

much more at link

Background info: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/06/protonmail_pays_attack_ransom/

[hobbit709]

1. I wonder who was behind that.