Messages sent in Telegram are not as secure by default as is often thought.
13:41•Updated 14:09
Founder and CEO of messaging service Telegram Pavel Durov was arrested on Saturday night in Paris. An arrest warrant had been issued for Durov based on deficiencies in the moderation of Telegram messages.
The deficiencies have enabled criminal activity, such as drug trafficking. According to French prosecutors, Telegram has also not agreed to cooperate with the authorities to eradicate crime.
Telegram is a big drug sales channel in Finland as well.
The application is also popular among students. Many student organizations in higher education institutions use Telegram for their communication.
In this article, we will tell you what you need to know about Telegram, its risks and the app’s founder.
Is Telegram a safe app?
A special feature of Telegram is that there can be up to 200,000 users in one chat group, says the Cyber Security Center’s information security expert Antti Louko.
The service also supports channel-type one-way forums as well as video and voice calls.
According to Louko, Telegram is used by a considerable number of Finns, but an exact estimate is not available.
The application is often considered safe from the user’s point of view, but conversations are not strongly encrypted by default.
– If the user does not turn on the function called secret chats separately for each conversation, Telegram as a service provider can read the content of the user’s message traffic, says Louko.
So-called end-to-end encryption, on the other hand, is always on in the Signal and Whatsapp messaging apps.
CEO of Cyberwatch Finland Aapo Cederberg does not rank Telegram against other messaging apps, but rather calls for discretion in sending information for each app.
Cederberg is critical of Telegram, especially because its founders, i.e. Durov and his brother, are Russian-born.
– As a Finn, it is difficult to understand why an application founded by a Russian is used, when there are others. We can’t know if it has a backdoor for, say, the Russian security service.
Telegram is one of the most popular instant messaging services in Russia, and it has been allowed to operate relatively freely in the country.
The application is also an important source of information in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Both Russian and Ukrainian authorities use it as an information channel.
Also the previous prime minister of Finland Sanna Marini The visit to Kiev and the Hornet statements surfaced on Telegram channels in March 2023.
What does Durov’s arrest mean?
Durov will remain in custody until at least Wednesday. After the arrest, Russia has demanded access to Durov.
The arrest has been accused of political and French state censorship. The president of the country Emmanuel Macron denied the claims in a post on Monday in X in the writing.
Telegram, on the other hand announced on Sunday that it has nothing to hide. According to the service’s view, the owner should not be responsible for misuse of the platform.
It is not yet known what consequences the arrest will have for Durov or Telegram. Cederberg believes that the arrest will have little effect on the operation of the app.
Pavel Durov and the Finland connection
Billionaire Durov, 39, founded Telegram with his brother in London in 2014. Durov now also holds French citizenship.
He left Russia the same year when he was fired from another company he had previously founded. He refused to comply with the Russian authorities’ demand to shut down opposition groups on the social service he founded, Vkontakte.
Durovi is known to have been connected to Finland. In 2017, he represented Finland in the group of young leaders of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
According to WEF, Durov’s Telegram company was registered in Savitaipale at that time. However, Durov’s company was not found in the South Karelia place of business register.
Based on the Instagram posts tagged to Durov’s Savitaipale, he has spent time there.