October 10, 2022
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0The Latest Fails of Telegram
Telegram is a controversial social network that is becoming more and more popular every day. Of course, the messenger made such a leap in popularity thanks to the scandalous past of its founder, Pavel Durov.
Today, Telegram is a popular messenger used by people all over the world.
Nevertheless, the messenger very often gets into the news due to data leaks or the discovery of vulnerabilities.
In this article, we will talk about the main Telegram stories in 2022.
Previously we compared Telegram with other messengers. You can read more here.
Fails of Telegram in 2022
#1 There was a massive hacking of channels in Telegram
In Telegram, there was a massive hacking of channels with calls for users to take part in illegal actions.
A massive hacking of channels was recorded on Telegram on February. Unknown persons posted an appeal to subscribers on thematic channels and journalists’ channels to participate in illegal street protests.
According to one of the Telegram channels, the appearance of identical messages in the messenger may be due to the hacking of one of the popular bots.
A user base leak happened in Telegram. Learn more here.
#2 Hong Kong authorities are thinking about blocking Telegram
The Hong Kong authorities are discussing the possibility of restricting access to the Telegram messenger.
According to the story, in May Hong Kong authorities considered blocking Telegram due to the publication of personal data of government officials and individuals in group chats and channels.
It is noted that such a decision of the authorities may be perceived by the population as a restriction of internet freedom. It is expected that this step will provoke public discontent.
What happened in Hong Kong? Read more here.
#3 Scammers threaten to lose correspondence from Telegram
Cybercriminals have come up with a new way to put pressure on their victims: they warn about the allegedly pending export of their data from Telegram and “carefully” offer to stop it.
The interviewed experts warn that no matter how frightening the prospect of someone pumping out megabytes of your correspondence, it is not worth following the link — nothing good can be found on it.
“Telegram has received an export request.” is written in an SMS from the sender with the name “jfservice,” with no previous connection to the addressee. In the text of the message, there is an abbreviated link that supposedly will cancel the export command.
It sounds scary: if you believe the news, then someone has taken possession of your account login data and is now pumping everything out of there. The “saving” link from the SMS opens the page of the web version of Telegram, or rather a fake that is barely distinguishable from it. There is a “stop export” button on it.
Such mailing is used to gain unauthorized access to someone else’s Telegram account. The user who follows the instructions will not stop the leakage of personal information, but on the contrary, will hand the attackers the data to log in to the account.
Is Telegram secure to use? Learn more here.
#4 Users of the paid Telegram were warned about the threat to the security of their data
Voice messages of users of a paid Telegram subscription are transmitted to Google for decryption. The data security of Telegram Premium paid subscription users is under threat.
It follows from the document that subscribers’ voice messages are transmitted to Google for decryption. “There is no guarantee yet that every voice message you are trying to convert to text will be transcribed correctly or will be transcribed at all. The accuracy and availability of this technology depend on a third party (Google LLC, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.).”
As Telegram representatives clarified, they cannot guarantee that the audio message decryption function will work correctly or will always be available to users with a paid subscription.
“That is, in theory, not only Pavel Durov, but also Google will be able to listen to your messages.” Also, you cannot convert voice messages to text in secret chats.
Telegram messenger launched a paid Premium subscription on June 19. In addition to decrypting voice messages, subscribers were able to upload files up to four gigabytes, download files at maximum speed, and send unique stickers and reactions.
#5 Telegram has allowed Premium users to block voice messages
Such users also have the opportunity to create their own animated emojis.
Telegram messenger users with a Premium subscription can now prohibit the sending of voice and video messages, as well as create their own animated emojis, the company said.
It is noted that new emojis can be added to the text of messages and captions of photos and videos, even in the middle of a phrase. “The first 10 animated sets with more than 500 emojis are already available. New sets and emojis will appear regularly,” the company said.
Also, new interactive emojis have become available to all users, and Premium subscription holders will be able to use them in the form of reactions.
In addition, the developers have added the ability to get a prepaid Premium subscription for 3, 6, or 12 months with a discount and updated the design of the sticker panel for iOS.
#6 Telegram has deleted inactive user channel addresses
All publicly available channel addresses in Telegram that have not been used for a year have been deleted. These were about 70% of all occupied names, and they belonged to cybercriminals from Iran. This was stated by the founder of the messenger, Pavel Durov.
“In mid-August, we deleted all publicly available Telegram addresses associated with channels that had been empty or inactive for the past year,” Durov said on his channel.
Durov called such inactive channels a “graveyard of dead names” that interferes with users when searching. Those who wanted to get these reserved addresses often did not receive a response or were deceived, the founder of the messenger added. He also stated that he plans to gradually return 99% of the recalled addresses to public use: this time they will be equipped with “algorithmic and geolocation restrictions.”
The rarest short addresses will be raffled off at auction, and those who buy these links “will be motivated to use them for their intended purpose and benefit users with original content posted at recognizable addresses.”
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