Addressing Security False Positives

Some of you have recently reported that security software on your systems or networks is incorrectly flagging Filen as untrusted or potentially harmful. We are aware of this issue, it is a false positive, and we are actively working to resolve it.

This is not unique to Filen. Cloud storage providers are regularly targeted by bad actors who create accounts to abuse the infrastructure, for example to move data out of compromised networks. When that happens and gets reported, threat intelligence platforms can flag the provider's domain as a whole. These flags are shared between platforms, so a classification in one system cascades into others, even after the abusive accounts have long been removed.

This is an industry-wide challenge, and it is a large part of why we recently made our registration process harder to abuse.

We are also actively reaching out to the affected threat intelligence providers to dispute the classifications and request review.

If you are using Filen on a personal device and are not experiencing any issues, there is nothing you need to do.

What We Are Doing

We are working on getting Filen's classification corrected across affected databases. Each platform has its own review flow, and some move faster than others, but we are making progress.

We have also tightened our registration process with automated checks to prevent mass account creation and misuse, and added a clear eligibility indicator during signup so the process stays transparent for legitimate users.

We run an active bug bounty program and conduct ongoing internal security testing to identify and address potential vulnerabilities in our systems. If a real security issue were ever discovered, it would be investigated through these security processes and communicated by us directly, not inferred from automated reputation flags.

What You Can Do If You Are Blocked

If you or your organization is currently affected, here are a few things that can help:

Add an exclusion for the Filen installation folder in your security software.
For network-level blocks, our IP range (146.0.41.192/26) can be whitelisted at the firewall level. For DNS-level blocks, the following domains would need to be whitelisted: filen.io, filen.net, filen-1.net, filen-2.net, filen-3.net, filen-4.net, filen-5.net, filen-6.net.
All Filen client applications are open source (AGPL 3.0) and available for review here. The desktop application is signed with a valid code signing certificate from Filen Cloud Dienste UG.

Filen is a registered German company. All servers are located in Tier IV ISO 27001 certified data centers in Germany, and we are fully GDPR compliant. Our encryption whitepaper is available here.

If you need help with your specific situation, reach out to us through our support page.