Slashdot Mirror
Iran Bans Use of Telegram Messaging App To Protect 'National Security' (reuters.com)
Iran has banned all use of the popular Telegram messaging app. The ban had been introduced to protect "national security," said a statement aired on state television. From a report: Iran had been considering the ban since January when protests over economic grievances erupted in more than 80 cities and later turned into demonstrations against the clerical and security elite of the Islamic Republic. Some hardline officials said protesters used Telegram to organize the rallies, which were ultimately contained by the Revolutionary Guards and their affiliated volunteer Basij militia. The app was temporarily blocked in January. "Considering various complaints against the Telegram social networking app by Iranian citizens, and based on the demand of security organizations to confront the illegal activities of Telegram, the judiciary has banned its usage in Iran," state TV reported. "All Internet providers in Iran must take steps to block Telegram's website and app as of April 30," the judiciary website Mizan quoted a court order as saying.
"I distinctly remember that Telegram's encryption sucks."
If it sucked, it would pretty weird for both Russia and Iran to ban and block it.
Telegram operates in a simpler less secure mode by default, and when you want true end-to-end encryption you need to explicitly start a 'private chat'.
The default mechanism cloud stores the messages, which lets you have messages sync'd to multiple devices etc, lets you send messages when the other person is offline.
The 'secret chat' mechanism is end-to-end single device to single device, and it only works when the other party is online (so the messages aren't stored and forwarded by telegram, but directly sent between devices. And if you logout the key for the chat is deleted, so the messages are gone if you log back in. It also has gimmicks like expiring self destruct messages etc. (Naturally, the recipient can do the usual stuff to keep a self-destructing message... but it does mean if law enforcement or something gets your phone old messages will be gone.
So it sounds like the default isn't really much better than skype or whatever, but the private chat mechanism appears to be getting a ringing endorsement from both Russia and Iran now.
I distinctly remember that Telegram's encryption sucks.
If it's good enough to piss of iranian and russian gouvernment it should be good enough for most people.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
"Iran Bans Use of Telegram Messaging App To Protect the people in power from their citizens "
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Yes, ability to tap all forms of communication are essential to national security. Yes, they are kind of fucked in that respect. We all are, except the US ... and maybe China if they go full autarky as far as tech is concerned, which they could.
Life is so much easier when you can walk in with a national security letter to backdoor any app you want, you have undercover moles putting exploits into everything and have labs all through the country to intercept shipments and backdoor hardware using the hardware design knowledge you gained from your moles. In the US unless you build your own communication device there is nothing the government can't tap, they do have that many fingers.
The companies that have sold tech to Iran that enables them to do this should be the real story here, not just one app
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Currently Russia is trying to ban telegram. All it is doing is making our russian co workers get VPNs in other countries so they can access the things they need to for work.
Telegrams functionality hasnt been impacted
Okay.
Government. No "u" in English spelling. Also we usually capitalize names of countries/nationalities.
Finally, it should be noted that your English seems to be better than most other people's English.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"