Telegram is 'not a secure platform,' NATO-backed strategic comms chief warns

Telegram is 'not a secure platform,' NATO-backed strategic comms chief warns(washingtonexaminer.com)

10 points by decrypt 3 years ago | 7 comments

They should not be using cell phones at all if security is a concern not to mention they are a distraction and can be used against people when they are captured. The enemy will extract ones family details from the phone and call them. Let the psychological games begin. No applications are required, just turn on the cell phone and one is instantly a target.

Encrypted freq hopping wide spectrum dynamic power radios with encrypted repeaters managed by the military on the field is the only semi-secure option and even that comes with significant risks. Even then there should be little to no voice comms. Just a 4 byte group designation and a 2 byte code burst that maps to per-arranged tactical instructions and optional coordinates. Ack codes should be optional in the event the enemy gets the decryption key of the hour. Manual ack should have the option of commands received or squad compromised.

usrn 3 years ago |

It's kind of surprising that they managed to convince so many people it is secure. I think part of it is that the people who really care about this sort of thing never bothered with it since it requires a phone number.

XMPP has signal style encryption with OMEMO now. Just use that.

mikece 3 years ago |

Is that because it's not made by/in a NATO country and, therefore, no NATO nation can coerce the developers to install a back door (like, say, the NSA could with Signal)?

Personally I'll stick to Wire, Threema, and my own Matrix server instance.

axy 3 years ago | |

Highly possible, but NATO does not seem to lie. Remember the incident when telegram started developing their blockchain and was kicked out of US by SEC? They had huge debt since then, but things settled down somehow. However, later on I've read some bad news in the press, related to persecution of political activists and the role of telegram in that. I don't remember the details, but I remember those warning signs. And the cherry on the cake was disruption of telegram service during elections 2019 in Russia. Given that you need a phone number to register in telegram, guess who paid the debt and who now owns the userbase. So I dissuade everyone I know from using it.

usrn 3 years ago | |

It's probably because it doesn't encrypt group chats at all.

Anunayj 3 years ago | |

because Telegram doesn't end-to-end encrypt communications by default! If you want that you need to start a "secret" chat, which can only be accessed on that (mobile) device, (and cannot be backed up or recovered)

Forget metadata being protected. Though imo Telegram is great for any communication that does not need to be secret.

People have also expressed concern about flaws in the custom protocol used, though most of the concerns are related to metadata leaks than actual text message communication, which might be ok or not ok depending on your threat.

Shadonototra 3 years ago | |

this, it seems like what ever they don't/can't control/spy/backdoor is automatically tagged as bad/not secure

it is becoming very funny at this point