Telegram emerges as … an alternative to the deep internet for cybercriminals?

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telegram 1 1000x600.jpg
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Remove the ellipsis, the question marks and what remains is the full headline that Ars Technica has dedicated to the subject: Telegram emerges as an alternative to the deep internet for cybercriminals. It is a work in collaboration with the Financial Times whose source, a study also carried out in collaboration with the Cyberint group of experts, is not even linked.

The article points out that in conducting this study, “a network of hackers were found who shared data leaks on the popular messaging platform, sometimes on channels with tens of thousands of subscribers, attracted by its ease of use and moderation. light. In many cases, the content resembled that of the marketplaces found on the deep web, a group of hidden websites that are popular with hackers and accessed using specific anonymity software. ‘

The idea that is handled at all times is that for its greater accessibility, its less control and its encrypted messages -they allude to the encryption issue several times and it is not clear why, as I will explain later- Telegram is becoming an alternative to more sophisticated methods for cybercriminals, such as going to sites on the deep Internet -Call it Deep web If you prefer.

You do not have to be an expert in anything to know a little about how the Internet works, to know that illegalities are committed in Telegram. Famous were the radical Islamist channels that proliferated on the platform a few years ago, and even recently numerous channels and pro-Trump groups were closed, as a result of the events experienced in the capitol after the victory of Joe Biden in the last US presidential elections. .

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Beyond that, there are many groups and channels on Telegram where content protected by copyright is shared, such as music, series, movies, books … Now, whoever is free of sin, throw the first stone, because there is no great Internet platform that is free of having been used for these purposes and others of a worse nature if possible.

Of course, there is also a lot of software piracy on Telegram, so it would not be surprising if the things that the study denounces happen. Specifically and above all, the sale of stolen credentials. The existence of all that is more than plausible and Telegram should do something about it.

In fact, Telegram’s attitude in matters such as the unlimited storage space that they offer and that they sometimes use to promote themselves as an alternative to services like Google Drive and the like is insane, because Internet users around the world have already learned by now from the movie that there is nothing free. That Telegram maintains the opposite is an impudence. Or do you think that “honest” users are dedicated to uploading gigabytes of content just for the sake of it?

hacker - telegram

Dangerous cybercriminal and Telegram user challenges the NSA to locate him by his fingerprints

Telegram does many things right and many other things wrong, but the Ars Technica article is nowhere to be found: they give several examples of illegal activities that would no longer exist, as the platform itself put an end to them when the Financial Times journalists asked them about it; say that “links to Telegram groups or channels shared within forums on the dark web increased to more than 1 million in 2021, from 172,035 the year before,” providing numbers so accurate that it is sobering (since when are you following this affair?).

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At the same time, they justify the growth of illegal activities on Telegram in the WhatsApp privacy policy change announced at the end of last year, which suggests that all these cybercriminals did not operate on the deep Internet, but on WhatsApp. But they don’t enter there; However, they insist on talking about encrypted messages from Telegram, when the extreme encryption, contrary to what happens in WhatsApp, does not cover groups or channels … not even private chats, unless the specific option is chosen in the application mobile.

The story goes deeper – and never better said – in detail, but it is so badly woven that it suggests a little crazy thoughts: Have Cimercriminals Turned Idiots Overnight? I mean, did they really use WhatsApp and have they moved to Telegram en masse because of a change in privacy policy (ergo, they relied on WhatsApp’s extreme encryption)? Is Telegram’s encryption (transmission encryption, the same one used by any connected service today) really an incentive of nothing? Is someone who is exposed to selling or buying illegal material and whose management demands at least a minimum knowledge of technical aspects at first, is it really going to choose Telegram over an encrypted and decentralized network like Matrix?

The recent and very large investments received by Telegram, as well as the company’s supposed intention to go public, are also mentioned to argue that such a service should take all this matter more seriously and of course what reason they are not lacking, but the rest?

It is not clear where is telegram going, a service that emerged as a messaging alternative to WhatsApp that has resulted in a productivity suite, social network, podcasting… I have to admit that I like the application more and more in terms of functionalities, but the fact that it is a centralized service disables it to position itself as a suitable solution for those who seek an optimal level of privacy, in which it results in the control of the own data. And if this has not been achieved in almost a decade, is it going to displace the deep Internet because it is easier to use than Tor? Really?