Submitted via IRC for FatPhil
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
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Telegram iOS app removed from App Store last week due to child pornography
The encrypted messaging app Telegram was mysteriously removed from Apple's App Store last week for a number of hours. At the time, little was known about the reason why, except that it had to do with "inappropriate content." According to a 9to5Mac report, Apple removed Telegram after the app was found serving up child pornography to users.
A verified email from Phil Schiller details that Apple was alerted to child pornography in the Telegram app, immediately verified the existence of the content, and removed the app from its online stores. Apple then notified Telegram and the authorities, including the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Telegram apps were only allowed to be restored to the App Store after Telegram removed the inappropriate content and reportedly banned the users who posted it.
[...] Since Telegram is a messaging app with end-to-end encryption, it's unlikely that the content in question originated from direct messages between users. It's possible that the child pornography came from a Telegram plugin, but neither Apple nor Telegram has revealed the source of the inappropriate content.
Telegram is an instant messaging service with at least 100 million monthly active users.
Also at The Verge and Apple Insider.
Related: Former Whatsapp Users Bring Telegram to its Knees
Hackers Compromised Telegram Accounts, Identified 15 Million Users' Phone Numbers
Open Source Remote Access Trojan Targets Telegram Users
Russia Targets Telegram App After St Petersburg Bombing
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Tuesday June 27 2017, @05:20AM (2 children)
Seems odd that the British rush to denounce encrypted communications even before making any arrests, then they make a bunch of arrests and let everyone go the next day. All the while bitching about encryption.
The French did the same thing earlier. Till it was leaked that no encryption was used.
Now the Russians do the same thing.
It seems like there is a world wide attempt to build a "guilt by encryption" mindset in the public.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Tuesday June 27 2017, @06:23AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(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.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @05:34AM (3 children)
Do these articles seem to be trying to get people to use telegram?
Telegram is using, inexplicably, a 'homebrew' encryption system utilizing centralized servers to provide a centralized service. And it also arbitrarily requires being linked to a mobile number. In other words, it is incredibly likely that this system has already been compromised. By contrast, there are genuinely free, decentralized, and secure alternatives like Tox (among many). This just seems like a very awkward and transparent honeypot effort.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Tuesday June 27 2017, @06:31AM
Personally, I don't think I trust anything apart from OTR.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday June 27 2017, @12:40PM (1 child)
(on camera for the press)
KG^H^HFSb: Terrorists used encrypted app!
Authorities: Mr Durov, please remove the encryption from your app.
Mr Durov: Nyet.
(behind closed doors)
Authorities: They bought it.
Mr Durov: Our message monitoring back end is registering an uptick in confidence. You have full access and all API's.
FSB: Thank you for your cooperation Mr Durov. You have done great things for mother Russia. You will be greatly rewarded.
Mr Durov: Spasibo
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @01:52PM
They already "rewarded" him once by taking VKontakte from him. Not that this thing isn't possible with some other government which didn't directly harm him.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @05:35AM (2 children)
Russia and other governments need to pull out of the Muslim world, and begin deporting Muslims with extreme prejudice.
What's the point of pretending we don't know why these attacks happen?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @06:17AM
Russia have regions that are Islamic since hundreds of years. It's whole another situation than in US or Europe. And they get most of their hydrocarbons domestically asfaik. An equivalent would be to expel Quebec people from Canada (and Quebec).
Otoh, Russia have internal border controls in some places. So it surely have the will and experience to do so for this problem if they would like to.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Bot on Tuesday June 27 2017, @07:01AM
They know the problem is Islam itself. I know I know, Good Muslims(tm) are angry at ISIS for their methods, yet themselves currently implement the outbreeding strategy, with no respect for the fact that they did not conquer the territory, they have been hosted. Yet they think they are in the right, because the west in the form of USA has rattled their cage. They fail to notice they do so with the help and widespread collaboration of western elite and media. Is the elite going to let Islam win? Or are they about to unleash a nationalistic reaction? are they letting people fight for a while and then ban religion altogether? whichever they do, it is an obvious win for their ultimate master, evil.
So why removing terrorism, the hen laying golden eggs? terrorism gives governments all the advantages of an external enemy, yet it does strike only the lowly people. Islam, militant or plain, justifies the economic crisis transforming it into a societal/cultural crisis, as a bonus. If there were no Islam it would be necessary to invent one.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @05:39AM (1 child)
The bomber also used air, and would have been unable to carry out the attack without it.
I don't understand how an application being a useful tool, that some terrorists use, makes the application bad. Terrorists drive cars, and cars cause more deaths than terrorism in accidents. They also help people escape the scene of the crime in bank robberies. Should we ban cars? Wheels?
Terrorists us vaccinations. Without them, they would die in plagues! Should we ban vaccinations?
The idea of not discussing a cost benefit analysis when discussing banning things bothers me; but terrorists use cost benefit analysis so its evil and we should ban it.
I wish the political circus would stop screwing with the tech stuff. Which of several nearly identical encrypted communication services you use should not be the center of political pandering and attempted power grabs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @06:29AM
It is a power grab. It is up to others to make sure that fails.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @06:46AM
DEATH TO SOYLENT NEWS !!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 27 2017, @08:42AM
FSB is the KGB. They just renamed it, like MRI is just a renamed NMR because the latter uses the word Nuclear and people freak out over words. Same with KGB. The name has baggage, so it's renamed and it becomes all better while being the same.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday June 27 2017, @08:51AM
The mention of FSB always highlights to me how little we, the public, knows about the Russian equivalents to the western intelligence services. We all think we know something about the big scarey three letter (or number) agencies of the west. They do after all have similar agencies but we rarely know or hear anything or very little about them. Such as the Russian counterpart to the NSA, currently called the Special Communications Service and being a part of the FSO (Federal Protective Service), previously known as FAPSI (perhaps not the best English acronym). One (or I) is left wondering how capable they are and why we never or rarely hear anything about them.
How do they feel about the Telegram app, I guess we can conclude they are not having warm and fussy feelings about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Communications_Service_of_Russia [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by fnj on Tuesday June 27 2017, @09:08PM
Terrorists use spoken and written words to communicate, too. Guess we better outlaw verbal communication, eh? They also breathe. We should do something about that pesky oxygen in the air. And gee, they eat ...