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Russia's FSB1 security agency has said the Telegram mobile messaging app was used by a suicide bomber who killed 15 people in St Petersburg in April.
Authorities have already threatened to block the app, founded by Russian businessman Pavel Durov, for refusing to sign up to new data laws.
Mr Durov has refused to let regulators access encrypted messages on the app.
Telegram has some 100 million users and has been used by so-called Islamic State (IS) and its supporters.
IS used the app to declare its involvement in the jihadist attack on and around London Bridge in the UK last month.
Telegram has been used by jihadists in France and the Middle East too, although the app company has highlighted its efforts to close down pro-IS channels. Telegram allows groups of up to 5,000 people to send messages, documents, videos and pictures without charge and with complete encryption.
Now the FSB has said that as part of its investigation into the St Petersburg attack it "received reliable information about the use of Telegram by the suicide bomber, his accomplices and their mastermind abroad to conceal their criminal plots at all the stages of preparation for the terrorist attack".
A Russian identified as Akbarzhon Jalilov blew himself up between two underground stations on 3 April. The security agency said that Telegram was the messenger of choice for "international terrorist organisations in Russia" because they could chat secretly with high levels of encryption.
1 According to Wikipedia, FSB:
The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB; Russian: Федеральная служба безопасности Российской Федерации (ФСБ), tr. Federal'naya sluzhba bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Federatsii; IPA: [fʲɪdʲɪˈralʲnəjə ˈsluʐbə bʲɪzɐˈpasnəstʲɪ rɐˈsʲijskəj fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨjɪ]) is the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the USSR's Committee of State Security (KGB). Its main responsibilities are within the country and include counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and surveillance as well as investigating some other types of grave crimes and federal law violations.
Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40404842
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday June 27 2017, @08:24AM
It's hard to arrest dead terrorists, that doesn't mean they can't do some analysis as part of the criminal investigation even tho the terrorists are dead. So if they find out all the dead terrorist use the same app that is something, and it means a lot more then trivial information such as all the terrorist eat sleep and breath.
That said it does seem that the British are the most vocal in the media about various public encryption issues. In the French case it was a bit odd since it later turned out that they had just used normal phones and sent messages and talked to each other. So much for the illusion of there being some kind of real-time-intercept-and-analysis of data to act upon, if they find it days or a week or so later then it is just evidence.
Having no encryption might help in the surveillance of terrorists, but it probably won't help much cause if there is no encryption and all data is open and plain they'll just communicate in some other fashion for the long term planning. What they are communicating with during the actual attack(s) doesn't matter all that much cause by then it is to late and it won't matter all that much unless they are planning on getting out alive or engage in some sort of hostage-standoff that will last for days or weeks. For an attack that might last an hour at best before everyone is dead encryption doesn't matter, at best it is some final fuck you to the investigators from the terrorists.
'Guilt by encryption' is probably a valid idea or agenda as far as they are concerned. That said it is not like it would make them do a better job, it might be easier in the aftermath and the criminal investigation. Banning the Telegram app tho while it might put some minor dent in the evildoers plans it will only be temporary until they find another app that offer the exact or a similar thing. It will become some sort of chatapp-whack-a-mole with a cycle of development-banning-restart, the cat is out of the bag so to speak and there is no way of going back to national state owned phone monopolies where they can control all aspects of communications and even if they somehow would manage it would only be a nuisance for normal people and not for terrorists, they would just get some encrypted walkie-talkie to use during the attack instead -- they wouldn't care that they are or would be illegal cause they are about to die for Allah anyway.