The creator of Signal slams the security of Telegram …
The creation of Telegram is marked since its beginnings with the seal of rebellion. This alternative to WhatsApp or other Messenger was in fact born after the Russian government took control of the VKontakte site, the Slavic equivalent of Facebook. Pavel Dourov, its creator, not having too much appreciated the method, he joined forces with his brother Nikolai to develop a messaging system that would escape the control of the FSB (the Russian intelligence service in charge of internal security). Thus born Telegram, which puts forward its method of encrypting messages which would therefore be impossible to fault. When it was launched in 2013, Pavel Durov even announced that he would offer $ 200,000 in cryptocurrency to anyone who succeeds in breaking the method. Almost 10 years later, is the app still so good?
Telegram: message decoded?
Because Telegram has accumulated a bit of bad publicity in recent years. Already because she seems to be the terrorists’ favorite messaging system, precisely thanks to its renowned encryption. A backlash that the Durov brothers really did not see coming. A phantom moderation was also pointed out which helped certain circles of child pornography to exchange prohibited files with impunity. Finally because its creators, although claimed opponents of the Kremlin regime, sometimes make concessions to it. Today, it is one of their direct competitors who attacked them.
It’s amazing to me that after all this time, almost all media coverage of Telegram still refers to it as an “encrypted messenger.”
Telegram has a lot of compelling features, but in terms of privacy and data collection, there is no worse choice. Here’s how it actually works:
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– Moxie Marlinspike (@moxie) December 23, 2021
It is indeed Moxie Marlinspike, the creator of Signal who questioned on his Twitter the qualities of Russian messaging.
It’s amazing to me that after all this time, almost all of Telegram’s media coverage still calls it “encrypted messaging”. Telegram has a lot of great features, but when it comes to privacy and data collection, there is no worse choice.
Marlinspike doesn’t go with the back of the spoon, but he has the arguments to do it. He already explains that Telegram has access to absolutely everything you share in the app. Contacts, media, messages,… Everything is stored on their servers. In particular, he gives irrefutable proof of this reality:
Delete Telegram, install it on a brand new phone, and register with your number. You will immediately see all your conversation history, all your contacts, all the media you have shared, all your groups. How? ‘Or’ What ? Everything was on their servers, in the clear.
In addition, what annoys the creator of Signal the most is that Telegram is talked about all the time as being encrypted messaging, when it is not really the case according to him. The American confides that the ” secret mode »Is not already offered by default and does not apply to group conversations. In addition, he judges that the end-to-end encryption used is strongly ” questionable “. He drives the point home by launching a comparison that will freeze the blood of the poor Durov brothers: Telegram and Facebook Messenger are ” built in the same way “. Marlinspike even adds a layer by saying that the “secret mode” of Zuckerberg’s app is ” much less limited Than that of its Slavic competitor.
He ends his pamphlet by asking those dealing with the subject not to be mistaken in the description of Telegram:
My request is that when you write “encrypted mail” it should at * minimum * mean an application where all messages are e2ee by default (end-to-end encryption). Telegram and FB Messenger are built exactly the same. None of them are “encrypted messaging”.
Basically, it seems the only effective choice for encrypted messaging is Signal. It is its creator who says it, he is necessarily in good faith …
