Slashdot Mirror
Russia Files Lawsuit To Block Telegram Messaging App (reuters.com)
Russia's state communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor, has filed a lawsuit to block Telegram in the country because the instant messaging company has refused to hand over the encryption keys that would allow Russian authorities to read messages sent using the service. From a report: Ranked as the world's ninth most popular mobile messaging app, Telegram is widely used in countries across the former Soviet Union and Middle East. Active users of the app reached 200 million in March. As part of its services, Telegram allows users to communicate via encrypted messages which cannot be read by third parties, including government authorities. But Russia's FSB Federal Security service has said it needs access to some messages for its work, including guarding against terrorist attacks. Telegram has refused to comply with its demands, citing respect for user privacy.
If a government moves to ban a program because said government can't use it to spy on its users, what more endorsement could you possibly need?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
In soviet Russia we block you!
> Ranked as the world's ninth most popular mobile messaging app
Citation needed.
Americans will read this and think Russia's government is horrible and oppressive, but every company that operates in the USA has to hand over whatever their agencies ask for, too. This isn't different, USA government just does a better job of tricking people into thinking they're better.
If some company HAS your keys, then you're doing communications wrong.
No, this isn't good PR for Telegram, because the suit itself proves that Telegram is completely insecure. And they could be forced by the court to openly divulge the keys. (They also might be forced or tricked to divulge the keys in other ways, perhaps unwittingly or secretly, which involve no courts.)
Fuck Russia. Fuck China. Fuck spying on people.
It's what they do.
At least they're glaringly up front about it, unlike the US TLA's relying on phony FISA courts, hardware OEM back doors, and so on to accomplish the same thing.
Give the Devil his due.
Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
Most people who are involved with government agencies are EXTREMELY ignorant about technology. (And most people in general, also.)
They don't realize that, if there is a back door, a key to decrypt, it will eventually be compromised. A government employee will give the key to someone who shouldn't have it. Or, hackers will eventually discover the key.
I am American and I am sick of the anti-Russia bias on liberal Slashdot.Org. Why SHOUDNT Russia have the rights to protect there own people against the threat of things like terrorism attacks? It is no doubt the USA deep state that pushes the idea that only the USA should be authorized to have access to all communications and that is rediculous. First USA and England use FAKE chemical weapon attack to hurt Russian diplomacy and now this. The west should be ashamed of ourselves.
He left russia a few years back and took on the citizenship of a caribean microcountry in order to continue with Telegram unmolested. IIRC nobody knows his exact whereabouts or the whereabouts of the devteam - probably they're distributed around the planet and living the cyberpunk/diginomad lifestyle, flying under the radar most of the time. It sure takes some guts and wits to stick it to the FSB and other russian three-letter-authorities, you have to hand it to them. Nice job.
Sidenote: I've been using Telegram for a few years now and really like it. Definitivly up there with Signal and Threema when in comes to worthy WhatsCrap alternatives.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
USA are hippocrates. They spy on ALL nations and the peoples.
The article only gives us some information about what is happening. Nowhere it states that Russia SHOULDNT have the rights to do it.
This site also reported a lot of stuff that came to light after Snowden blew the whistle, putting the surveillance practices of the USA and UK into perspective. Did they say then that it was for the USA to do it?
Maybe Slashdot should just top reporting stuff that happens in Russia, yes, I suppose then it would not be biased any more.
Things like the Telegram service make Putin pee himself, he's so insecure that someone is saying bad things about his behind his back! He has to have them all rounded up and shot. What a fucking beta.
It has the technology to use ephemeral keys, and any user can do it by enabling a "private conversation."
HOWEVER, for some reason, this is not done by default. The default settings use Telegram's own key for encryption.
Telegram should only use ephemeral keys (like Signal). The typical user doesn't know what they're doing or that the default settings can be decrypted by Telegram; they need the defaults to do it right in the first place.
Any application which refuses to violate security, even to the face of a government, deserves an award. Governments have to learn they have no right to their people's communication.
In Soviet Russia, it's Roskomnadz,or nothing at all!
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
This is just some fake controversy to try to convince more people to use it.
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I am confused.