Lavabit, Edward Snowden’s secure email provider which was shut down in August, has briefly come back online to allow users to download their email archive.

The secure email service was taken offline following US government pressure over the NSA revelations fuelled by Snowden’s leaks, abruptly removing access to all user email.

Talking about the impact of the sudden closure of Lavabit on its users, Lavabit’s founder, Ladar Levison, said: “I’m in the same boat as them. I used my Lavabit email account for 10 years. It was my only email account."

A two-step process

Lavabit will allow users to download their trapped email archive using a two-step process until 1am BST on 19 October, says an update on the site.

The first step will involve a password change, which will be active until Thursday, after which a complete archive of user email and data will be made available for download.

In October, revelations over the amount of data intercepted by the US government stoked fear that the then inaccessible user data had been compromised.

At the time, Lavabit founder Ladar Levison was fined $10,000 for not complying with the FBI's order. He appealed against the state’s attempts to take control of the secure email service’s encryption.

• Lavabit’s founder offered to log users’ email metadata for the FBI in exchange for $3,500 (£2,200) for his time