Telegram founder: US intelligence tried to bribe us to weaken encryption

Post by berns » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 6:22 PM UTC

permanentdecaf wrote: post #72

otalp wrote: post #5

>"It would be naive to think you can run an independent/secure cryptoapp based in the US." This seems to be a shot at WhatsApp and Signal, implying that they have loopholes that allow the FBI to snoop in. I'm not sure how true that is. This might be an attempt to deflect from the fact that Telegram uses a home-baked encryption protocol which might be insecure, while WhatsApp uses the OWS protocol.

Pavel Durov wants everyone to think security is about trust in people. Most companies in that business do the same, because it's easier than building something that doesn't require trust in people. The way Pavel Durov and others like him present "trust" is (ironically) shady corporate structures[1], shell companies, or use of the word "Switzerland." They want people to think like that because they've built businesses…

Post by Spiddz » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 6:32 PM UTC

ben_w wrote: post #105

drawkbox wrote: post #102

I am not sure about the claim here but the FBI has always been all over cryptography companies and products and this was well before Snowden, Phil Zimmermann (PGP) knows about this. In 2003-2006, we built a service that was a financial system to exchange financial data through various means including AS/2 EDI over HTTP with big companies and the government suppliers such as AAFES (Army and Air Force Exchange). Initia…

Interesting. That strongly implies that RSA has a flaw, which is news to me.

Post by dsacco » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 6:35 PM UTC

berns wrote: post #131

permanentdecaf wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pavel Durov wants everyone to think security is about trust in people. Most companies in that business do the same, because it's easier than building something that doesn't require trust in people. The way Pavel Durov and others like him present "trust" is (ironically) shady corporate structures[1], shell companies, or use of the word "Switzerland." They want people to think like that because they've built businesses…

> Telegram stores the messages you send/receive unencrypted on their servers. Anyone who has used Telegram for more than 5 minutes knows there are secret chats. The effort being made to rig the information against Telegram also tells a lot about its relevance.

Post by mjg59 » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 6:42 PM UTC

drawkbox wrote: post #134

mjg59 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What encryption scheme were you using in PGP?

We just used it for a trusted/whitelist of users to send encrypted emails to one another, usually in the same company, and to forward on invoices/purchase orders to be sent. We just used default PGP setup with symmetric keys (which used PGP/IDEA internally I think). We switched this portion to Bouncy Castle with RSA. We were just using it for additional ways to send financial docs usually invoices/purchase orders and…

Post by rnhmjoj » Thu, Jun 15, 2017, 6:44 PM UTC

berns wrote: post #131

permanentdecaf wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pavel Durov wants everyone to think security is about trust in people. Most companies in that business do the same, because it's easier than building something that doesn't require trust in people. The way Pavel Durov and others like him present "trust" is (ironically) shady corporate structures[1], shell companies, or use of the word "Switzerland." They want people to think like that because they've built businesses…

> Telegram stores the messages you send/receive unencrypted on their servers. Anyone who has used Telegram for more than 5 minutes knows there are secret chats. The effort being made to rig the information against Telegram also tells a lot about its relevance.