Well, it's about the same level of security as other messengers like Facebook Messenger/Skype/..., it has a great robot API, is continuously updated on all platforms, is adding features fast, it has a great GUI, it "just works" everywhere.
Yeah, it's possible to have security like Signal, but then synchronization between devices is PITA and the rate of new features is slow.
It was not done by VK. It was done by Pavel Durov after he escaped from Russia.
> Well, it's about the same level of security as other messengers like Facebook Messenger/Skype/.. [...]
> Yeah, it's possible to have security like Signal [...]
Actually, WhatsApp has implemented Signal's encryption and they worked together with Moxie Marlinspike (the developer of Signal) who verified those claims (or something along these lines. I'm not 100% sure this is how it happened, please take it with a grain of salt). So at least one popular messenger implements security that is better than Telegram.
BTW, if we treat any claims about privacy and security with extreme skepticism (rightfully), then why do we trust Moxie and Facebook without being able to verify their claims? (I'm not saying that Moxie et al. are untrustworthy.)
The skepticism is right. The person leading the charge for "but but Telegram rolled their own crypto, so you shouldn't use it" is actually one of the developers of Signal.
Not a single working proof of concept attack on telegram has been released and no one even claimed to have decrypted a single message.
I'm not saying Telegram is impervious to ever being cracked, but it's certainly not cracked yet or at all proven to be insecure.
In short, "sources do not guarantee anything, and it's better to inspect the binary directly".
About Telegram, there have already been a few papers and so many articles pointing out its obvious security flaws that it is not even worth discussing anymore. Any search engine will return enough results for you to decide whether you should trust Telegram or not.
yeah, but it's not cross device. web/desktop clients use your phone to talk to whatsapp's servers, while telegram is actually cross platform with working message sync
>It was not done by VK. It was done by Pavel Durov after he escaped from Russia.
It's Durov's bullshit. Telegram is developed one floor beneath the VK office in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. Moreover, Durov himself often visits the office. Sources: [1] [2]
So yeah, between this and "MTProto is secure" I'm not sure if one can trust any other claim about Telegram's security (like "your chat logs are secure on our servers").
I wondered who is financing Telegram since it's really moving fast and it has no apparent source of revenue; it makes sense that it's even coming from Russian government, since they want alternatives to US-owned services.
2. "Many concerns" only accumulate to one bad default setting (namely end to end encryption opt-in).
People should stop spreading the same FUD over and over, it makes me wonder whether those people posting messages on social media to influence online conversions also post on HN.
It's pretty quick and dirty, but enough that you get the idea. It doesn't read HN, but it reads Beer Advocate, Bing, Calorie King, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Weather Underground, and several others.
Telegram is one of my bets on a good, sane messaging platform for the future (vector/matrix is another, tent and even twitter used to be)