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Russia blocks ProtonMail

reuters.com

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Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#121

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

Noughmad wrote: post #26
foxx-boxx wrote: post #24

It’s no Russia, but Russian gov’t. Russian population can’t throw this regime out. This government is a lot like Saudis royal family.

Russia, unlike Saudi Arabia, is a democracy. They have elections. If the Russian people wanted to throw the regime out, they would have. Yes, you could make a good argument about propaganda, freedom of the press, and the unfortunate things that happen to leaders of opposition to Putin. But that is all to make the the population doesn't want to throw the regime out, not that it can't.

Russia is an authoritarian state, that imitates some democratic institutions. Transit of power via elections is impossible.

Source: I'm Russian.

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#122

Post by konart »

JulianMorrison wrote: post #29
Noughmad wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia, unlike Saudi Arabia, is a democracy. They have elections. If the Russian people wanted to throw the regime out, they would have. Yes, you could make a good argument about propaganda, freedom of the press, and the unfortunate things that happen to leaders of opposition to Putin. But that is all to make the the population doesn't want to throw the regime out, not that it can't.

An election where the public isn't free to get a real opposition candidate on the ballot, isn't a real election. Even if the rest of it was remotely free which it is not, it doesn't matter if you're offered Hobson's choice. Putin is a dictator. Russia is a dictatorship.

And if all of the new edits to the constitution will pass (they will) he will be call The Supreme Ruler.

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#123

Post by antpls »

joering2 wrote: post #116
d0mine wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be very surprised if certain agencies wouldn't have a nice search box for any content on ProtonMail (as it is for Gmail, etc if we believe Snowden). Remember Lavabit.

The difference was that number one Lavabit was made by a US citizen, and its servers were in the USA. Number two, Lavabit kept all keys to your email at their own premises and could de-crypt your email on their side. Protonmail cannot do so, because your password is a part of they key to decrypt email, and they do not know it, nor they can crack it in a reasonable amount of time, so AFAIK there is nothing they can pr…

> Protonmail cannot do so, because your password is a part of they key to decrypt email, and they do not know it, nor they can crack it in a reasonable amount of time, so AFAIK there is nothing they can provide LE with to decrypt your email on the go.

I don't think this is true. A hash of the password could be part of the key, but Protonmail already has that hash stored on its server (otherwise they would not be able to log you in when you send the password hash). If Protonmail would like to access your emails (or be asked to do so), I'm confident that they technically can. The only benefit is when a hacker get access to the email database, but not the password hash database, then in this case the hacker cannot read the emails.

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#124

Post by floatboth »

kome wrote: post #98
pdimitar wrote: post #66

Well, that in my eyes is a very solid advertising in favour of ProtonMail. And it's not like Russians, Chinese and generally people in countries whose governments are in the habit of censoring the internet aren't used to using Tor and/or VPNs to dodge censorship.

Telegram is blocked in Russia, but WhatsApp still works. Why?

It's way too popular, too many people would get angry.

Telegram was just the right size — not so tiny that only a few nerds use it, but not so big that the majority of normies have adopted it. And there was sort of a personal conflict, government people don't like Pavel Durov..

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#125

Post by whoo »

joering2 wrote: post #116
d0mine wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be very surprised if certain agencies wouldn't have a nice search box for any content on ProtonMail (as it is for Gmail, etc if we believe Snowden). Remember Lavabit.

The difference was that number one Lavabit was made by a US citizen, and its servers were in the USA. Number two, Lavabit kept all keys to your email at their own premises and could de-crypt your email on their side. Protonmail cannot do so, because your password is a part of they key to decrypt email, and they do not know it, nor they can crack it in a reasonable amount of time, so AFAIK there is nothing they can pr…

Have you considered how proton mail filters spam? It has to be stored in memory for this to happen before it's encrypted and flushed to the disk.

Unless your emails are encrypted for you on someone else's client before they're sent to your protonmail, in which case protonmail still has all of the metadata (time sent, where it was sent from, length of the message, etc.)

Do you believe proton mail can keep state level actors like Russia, China, and the United States out of their prod infra?

They may be "mostly" subpoena proof as in they can't disclose old emails, but do you trust them to not hand over your data before it's encrypted?

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#126

Post by als0 »

joering2 wrote: post #116
d0mine wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be very surprised if certain agencies wouldn't have a nice search box for any content on ProtonMail (as it is for Gmail, etc if we believe Snowden). Remember Lavabit.

The difference was that number one Lavabit was made by a US citizen, and its servers were in the USA. Number two, Lavabit kept all keys to your email at their own premises and could de-crypt your email on their side. Protonmail cannot do so, because your password is a part of they key to decrypt email, and they do not know it, nor they can crack it in a reasonable amount of time, so AFAIK there is nothing they can pr…

As long as you don't control the JavaScript that handles your keys, they can do whatever they like.

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#127

Post by orthoxerox »

kome wrote: post #98
pdimitar wrote: post #66

Well, that in my eyes is a very solid advertising in favour of ProtonMail. And it's not like Russians, Chinese and generally people in countries whose governments are in the habit of censoring the internet aren't used to using Tor and/or VPNs to dodge censorship.

Telegram is blocked in Russia, but WhatsApp still works. Why?

Telegram still works as well. It's technically banned, but works thanks to its blocking countermeasures.

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#128

Post by danenania »

joering2 wrote: post #116
d0mine wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be very surprised if certain agencies wouldn't have a nice search box for any content on ProtonMail (as it is for Gmail, etc if we believe Snowden). Remember Lavabit.

The difference was that number one Lavabit was made by a US citizen, and its servers were in the USA. Number two, Lavabit kept all keys to your email at their own premises and could de-crypt your email on their side. Protonmail cannot do so, because your password is a part of they key to decrypt email, and they do not know it, nor they can crack it in a reasonable amount of time, so AFAIK there is nothing they can pr…

If you access ProtonMail via their web app, all that's needed to steal your password and decrypt email at will is a few quick changes to the index.html they serve you. This could be targeted to specific users, and once the password is exfiltrated, the page can be reloaded, leaving no trace of the attack. Anyone with access to ProtonMail's back end code or infrastructure could do this. So at least in the case of their web app, they could absolutely provide LE with whatever they wanted in a way that would be quite difficult for the average user to detect.

I don't know whether their mobile apps also trust the server in the same way--by loading content or js from the server. If not, then those could potentially offer a more secure alternative since the same attack would now require an update for all users, which would leave evidence behind. Of course, you still have to trust that any users you're sending email to also never submit their passwords to the web app.

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#129

Post by demosito666 »

kome wrote: post #98
pdimitar wrote: post #66

Well, that in my eyes is a very solid advertising in favour of ProtonMail. And it's not like Russians, Chinese and generally people in countries whose governments are in the habit of censoring the internet aren't used to using Tor and/or VPNs to dodge censorship.

Telegram is blocked in Russia, but WhatsApp still works. Why?

Telegram works just fine and is only becoming more popular.

Re: Russia blocks ProtonMail

#130

Post by turk73 »

Timpy wrote: post #3

I've been considering leaving Gmail for a privacy focused email service but it seems so difficult to switch. So many accounts and services have my Gmail registered, I don't think I could collect them all. Can anybody using ProtonMail (or any other privacy focused email) recommend it? I feel like choosing an email provider these days is as serious as choosing a bank.

It's not difficult at all. First, you get the Protonmail account. Second, you set your Gmail acct to auto forward to your new account. Third, over a year or so, you taper off of Gmail or whatever.

I also exported all my old Gmail to my computer. I have never once opened that export other than to check it was legit.

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