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This situation really pissed me off. FSB (Russian FBI) had problems with receiving bomb threats coming from Protonmail addresses. So, they secretly ordered (wit

This situation really pissed me off. FSB (Russian FBI) had problems with receiving bomb threats coming from Protonmail addresses. So, they secretly ordered (with an almost classified order) major ISPs to block Protonmail bypassing Russian's existing website/IP addresses blocking scheme. Even worse, they ordered to __BLACKHOLE__ traffic coming to Protonmail. It means that ISPs were ordered to silently drop all traffic coming to Protonmail addresses. This raises problems not only for Russians, but for potentially for other countries as well. So, for example, someone connects from Japan to Protonmail (server is located in Europe, for instance). So, if traffic decides to go through Russian channels, for a client in Japan it will be just like Protonmail is not just responding because a Russian ISP in the chain silently drops traffic. Again. I want to repeat this once again. FSB had problems receiving bomb threats to their addresses. Instead of configuring their mail servers to ignore Protonmail incoming mail, they ordered major ISPs in Russia to block Protonmail for EVERYONE in the country. That's so dumb. Moreover, another recent leak coming from another Russian ISP indicates that FSB also ordered to block sending and receiving mail for certain mail addresses regardless of their domain. They ordered an ISP to block Email for certain addresses. Like, they ordered to ban all Email going from/coming to Emails starting with "putin666", like putin666@protonmail.com, puting666@gmail.com, puting666@example.com, any email coming from an email staring with "putin666". It's so dumb, oh god. They cannot configure their mail servers, but they have power to threat ISPs to ban Email for the entire country.

everdrive 8y ago
> they secretly ordered (with an almost classified order) Most of the time I hear about secret FSB orders, it's from HackerNews.
JumpCrisscross 8y ago
> FSB (Russian FBI) had problems with receiving bomb threats coming from Protonmail addresses Source?
- PeterZhizhin 8y ago
  The source is in the article, actually. This is the order from FSB that MTS operator received. They translated this as: “the mass distribution of obviously false reports of a terrorist act” in January, resulting in “mass evacuations of schools, administrative buildings and shopping centers.” Right before the IP addresses list, you can find terms "blackhole", "BGP". The document has a signature of a head of the FSB center that handles this types of requests and orders. Also, you can see a stamp in the right bottom corner on the first page. Full story, how a Russian internet company has actually found out about blackholing can be found here (in Russian): https://habr.com/ru/company/tm/blog/443222/ https://habr.com/ru/company/tm/blog/443222/ In the story, you can find that MTS confirmed that they are blocking traffic and referenced the order in the original article.
  - JumpCrisscross 8y ago
    If the CIA said “we got bomb threats from Tor so we need to block it,” I wouldn’t believe it. This source appears to have a similar level of corroboration. It looks far more likely that ProtonMail is being blocked to perpetuate the Russian elites’ control of Russia’s polity and economy. Not for security reasons.
    - ymolodtsov 8y ago
      The sad truth that it isn't. The most of the services they blocked were chosen for some insignificant reasons. This is what happens when you have a ruined system where every district judge can order to ban Youtube.
- kawera 8y ago
  Not the OP or the source you're looking for but an interesting article related to bomb threats in Russia: https://jamestown.org/program/telephone-bomb-threats-forcing-mass-evacuations-across-russia/ https://jamestown.org/program/telephone-bomb-threats-forcing...
Not_a_pizza 8y ago
So there are email addresses, that if properly used, will keep my email from being read within the confines of Russia? You might label that a bug, but I'll call that a feature.
bufferoverflow 8y ago
> had problems with receiving bomb threats coming from Protonmail addresses Or so they say.

everdrive 8y ago

> they secretly ordered (with an almost classified order) Most of the time I hear about secret FSB orders, it's from HackerNews.

JumpCrisscross 8y ago

> FSB (Russian FBI) had problems with receiving bomb threats coming from Protonmail addresses Source?

PeterZhizhin 8y ago
The source is in the article, actually. This is the order from FSB that MTS operator received. They translated this as: “the mass distribution of obviously false reports of a terrorist act” in January, resulting in “mass evacuations of schools, administrative buildings and shopping centers.” Right before the IP addresses list, you can find terms "blackhole", "BGP". The document has a signature of a head of the FSB center that handles this types of requests and orders. Also, you can see a stamp in the right bottom corner on the first page. Full story, how a Russian internet company has actually found out about blackholing can be found here (in Russian): https://habr.com/ru/company/tm/blog/443222/ https://habr.com/ru/company/tm/blog/443222/ In the story, you can find that MTS confirmed that they are blocking traffic and referenced the order in the original article.
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago
  If the CIA said “we got bomb threats from Tor so we need to block it,” I wouldn’t believe it. This source appears to have a similar level of corroboration. It looks far more likely that ProtonMail is being blocked to perpetuate the Russian elites’ control of Russia’s polity and economy. Not for security reasons.
  - ymolodtsov 8y ago
    The sad truth that it isn't. The most of the services they blocked were chosen for some insignificant reasons. This is what happens when you have a ruined system where every district judge can order to ban Youtube.
kawera 8y ago
Not the OP or the source you're looking for but an interesting article related to bomb threats in Russia: https://jamestown.org/program/telephone-bomb-threats-forcing-mass-evacuations-across-russia/ https://jamestown.org/program/telephone-bomb-threats-forcing...

Not_a_pizza 8y ago

So there are email addresses, that if properly used, will keep my email from being read within the confines of Russia? You might label that a bug, but I'll call that a feature.

bufferoverflow 8y ago

> had problems with receiving bomb threats coming from Protonmail addresses Or so they say.