2w ago

Ukraine Asks if Telegram, Its Favorite App, Is a Sleeper Agent

www.nytimes.com Ukraine Weighs Telegram Security Risks Amid War With Russia

The messaging app’s popularity has soared during the war with Russia, leading Ukrainian officials to increasingly weigh Telegram’s upsides against its security risks.

About 70 percent of Ukraine's population uses Telegram as their main source of news, but the government is worried that the app is being used as a method of disinformation and spying by Russia. They are trying to pivot to apps like Signal instead, but it is difficult to break the habit of such a majority of the country.

38 comments

Imagine entire country using coms software operated by the enemy.
Are these people idiots or just don't care for national security?
- Imagine entire country using coms software operated by the enemy.
  Do I get it right that you know that
  Pavel Durov (the creator of Telegram) has left Russia after refusing to give government information on Ukrainians during 2014 protests (from his previous project - VK, also used by both people in Russia and Ukraine)
  Russian government's most extensive blocking campaign/attempt was targeted at Telegram
  Telegram's headquarters are in UAE
  and still somehow make a conclusion that "it is operated by the enemy" (assuming that by enemy you mean Russian government)? I'd like to learn more about this logic :)
  
  There are some credible rumors that Durov had financial issues during the pandemic and went back to Russia to strike some sort of deal with the regime there, which would also explain why since then there have been no further attempts to block Telegram in Russia.
  
  Didn't Pavel get arrested in France?
  
  Every social media that isn't under anglo american control is a possible threat to the current global order. We have all seen this.
  
  Of course they would do that. Nobody would use it if the server was in putin's bedroom.
  Unless it's auditted and open source then you should assume its spyware.
  
  A girl can leave Russia but Russia never leaves the girl;)
  How naive are you?
  Even if everything you say can be assumed to be true, the risk from national security perspective is unacceptable during a time of war.
- Are you suggesting that the global reliance on Microsoft by every government could potentially pose an issue?
  
  Obviously yes, it is catastrophic for security to use windows, macos, android, ios. Anyone trusting this software is a fool.
  
  Indeed but my point here is that Ukraine is at war with Russia...
  Ukraine is not at war with US. So risk is Microsoft being imbeciles... Russia literally wants Ukraine wiped out and yet the idiots unable to change an app on their phone because "network effects and habit"
  Just wow
- Kek.
  That could never happen!
  looks at western countries and tik toc
  Social media is a theater of war. Manipulating citizens of a country slowly and insidiously over time is a huge win that inflicts no casualties on your own populace.

The founder is a French citizen whose social media platform was taken over by the Russian state.
- Who has visited the country many times after his so called exodus.

I mean yeah most likely

whether telegram was setup as a honeypot or got taken over or somehow is still independent and free of nation-state influence is a) beyond the expertise of any and all participants ITT and b) besides the point.
the main point is telegram's honcho when faced with the perfectly valid question (E2EE when?) throwing out one smoke screen after the other, shit noone asked or cared about and conflating unrelated crap to spread FUD - signal is CIA backed, whatsapp turns over metadata, all crypto is blown by NSA so we're better off without, we can't have encrypted channels (no1 axed for that), etc.
if he's being cagey and lying about plainly evident things, what else is he untruthful about?
there are FOSS telegram clients out there and adding on E2EE is trivial (remember Pidgin and OTR over Google's XMPP?). the fact that that's explicitly against telegram's TOS and that they're adamant about leaving all your shit unencrypted "in the cloud" draws but one conclusion.

but the government is worried that the app is being used as a method of disinformation
Yeah, disinformation..
People just share too many videos of ~~brutal kidnappings and beating of people in broad daylight~~ lawful mobilization actions by conscription officers there.
And what's even worse, people warn each other about the places where such lawful mobilization actions are taking place today, so that others can avoid them.
Unthinkable, right?

The dictatorship in Ukraine has bigger problems than Telegram if you ask me.

38 comments