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Proton Mail, an encrypted email messaging service, allegedly disabled the accounts of two journalists investigating cybersecurity breaches in the South Korean government.
Proton is commonly used by people seeking highly secure communications and has been blocked in countries with strict internet censorship like Russia and Turkey. Many news organizations, like The Boston Globe, use the service to manage tip-offs.
According to reports by The Intercept, the two journalists were working on an article about an “APT,” or advanced persistent threat, that had worked its way into computer networks at numerous vital government agencies in the country, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the military’s Defense Counterintelligence Command.
The journalists had set up a new Proton Mail account to manage “responsible disclosures” for the article, which is where ethical hackers disclose vulnerabilities to organizations. A week after the article landed in print, the journalists found the account they had set up for responsible disclosure notifications had been suspended. A day later, one of the journalists allegedly found that his personal Proton Mail account had also been suspended.
Phrack, a hacker-focused magazine that published the article, attacked Proton in an X post, asking, “Why are you cancelling journalists and ghosting us?”
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
In a reply on X, Proton’s official account said the company was “alerted by a CERT that certain accounts were being misused by hackers in violation of Proton’s Terms of Service,” leading to them being disabled. A CERT is an official government agency working on cyber security, for example, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), within the Department of Homeland Security.
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Proton’s CEO later announced that the accounts were reinstated, following another post by the company that said the company does “stand with journalists,” but that it “cannot see the content of accounts and therefore cannot always know when anti-abuse measures may inadvertently affect legitimate activism.”
The relationship between encrypted messaging services and governments continues to be a big issue in 2025. Countries such as the UK are reportedly under pressure to back down on demands that Apple and Meta share encrypted iCloud data to assist government investigations, which has reportedly caused friction with the Trump administration.
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