Moxie Marlinspike, founder of messaging app Signal, warned Ukrainians who use Telegram to communicate to be careful after Russia launched an attack on the country.
In a tweet, Marlinspike said Telegram was promoting its service as a secure application, even though all communications and contacts were stored in a database that Russia could easily find.
He warned that Moscow could threaten Telegram employees in Russia to access the database. "If the Russians don't want to bother with hacking, they can use family security for access," Marlinspike wrote, as quoted by Forbes, Saturday (25/2/2022).
Telegram is the most popular messenger in urban Ukraine. After a decade of misleading marketing and press, most ppl there believe it's an “encrypted app”
The reality is the opposite-TG is by default a cloud database w/ a plaintext copy of every msg everyone has ever sent/recvd. https://t.co/6eRGIyXyje
— Moxie Marlinspike (@moxie) February 25, 2022
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk joined in on Marlinspike's tweet and asked if Signal was really safe. Marlinspike answers that all communications on Signal are protected by end-to-end encryption, so there is no cloud database containing user chats.
Telegram certainly didn't stand still in the face of Marlinspike's comments. A Telegram spokesperson said comments like this weren't surprising, let alone coming from a smaller competitor.
"FUD [fear, uncertainty and doubt] like this is not surprising, coming from a minor competitor (and typical for this one)," a Telegram spokesperson said.
"Because of that, we can confirm that we don't have any developers or servers in Russia and we don't see any of the risks mentioned."
Telegram was indeed founded by Pavel Durov, a Russian-born man who left his birthplace in 2014. Telegram and Durov even had problems with the Russian government for refusing to provide data related to their service. Telegram itself is currently headquartered in Dubai.
Telegram's popularity in Ukraine has skyrocketed recently because it's easy to use, and the group chat and channel functions that it brings make it easier for users to disseminate information widely.
Even Ukrainian government officials and agencies, such as the military and security ministry, have used Telegram to provide information, ranging from cyberattacks to attacks on the ground.
Telegram doesn't have end-to-end encryption on by default like WhatsApp or Signal. Users who want to send messages more securely and confidentially can use the Secret Messages feature.
According to data shared by Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, usage of the Signal app in Ukraine has started to increase recently. Telegram has also improved but not so significantly.
Spike in use of Signal (messaging app) in Ukraine in the last 24 hours. Smaller but significant increase in the use of Telegram as well. pic.twitter.com/Mkt5WxhWzJ
— Matthew Prince (@eastdakota) February 24, 2022