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Russia Bans 1.8M Amazon and Google IPs in Attempt to Block Telegram

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Re: Russia Bans 1.8M Amazon and Google IPs in Attempt to Block Telegram

#181

Post by skrowl »

nephrite wrote: post #135
craigds wrote: post #26

Why block Telegram and not .. all the others? Whatsapp, Signal, Viber, ... Are they objecting to the use of encryption? Because everyone uses encryption almost all the time for everything everywhere. The cat has been well and truly released from that bag. Are they just going to turn off the internet altogether?

The FSB wants encryption keys. Telegram won't share, so is blocked. Therefore, Whatsapp and Viber gave up their keys, I suppose. Or provided backdoors.

We know from Snowden leaks that Microsoft (Skype) & Facebook (WhatsApp) are already freely handing info to any government that asks. Search Wikipedia for: PRISM (surveillance program) Other programs have probably superseded it (and include Japanese ecom giant Rakuten who owns Viber), but you can be sure the user info still flows.

Telegram's independence is what separates them from other services, what allowed them to deny the demand for crypto keys, and why they were targeted.

Re: Russia Bans 1.8M Amazon and Google IPs in Attempt to Block Telegram

#184

Post by skrowl »

MrDisposable wrote: post #162

Russian here. Good job Roskomnadzor. You just taught quite a few people to use VPN -- including me. And, as a side benefit, you created another image problem for Putin's regime (as if he needed any more of that). I already had Bitlocker on all my PCs, 2FA everywhere, moved from Gmail to Fastmail, and VPN was one of the last privacy-related things I procrastinated on. Now I have VPN on all my desktops and on my phone,…

Consider using VeraCrypt instead of Microsoft's closed source BitLocker. Basically for the same reason's you'd use Telegram over Facebook's WhatsApp.

Re: Russia Bans 1.8M Amazon and Google IPs in Attempt to Block Telegram

#185

Post by darkk »

negus wrote: post #93
lgl wrote: post #24

A few months ago I read an article about Telegram and their related companies and individuals. [1] The article read like a mix between a nerdy James Bond story, a bad Law and Order episode, a Mexican soap opera and a Russian episode of Cribs. It was written by an ex-employee so I took it with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, the article brings up a lot of red flags and shady behavior. Combined with their (alleged) conn…

"roll-your-own-crypto" == DH-RSA-AES with GPL implementation? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegram_(service)#Encryption_...

And autoupdater with http links, sha-1 and rsa-768. But I'm not 100% if I interpret sources correctly. https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/blob/dev/Telegra... https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/blob/dev/Telegra... https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/blob/master/Tele...

Re: Russia Bans 1.8M Amazon and Google IPs in Attempt to Block Telegram

#188

Post by Mithaldu »

andrepd wrote: post #172
nh2 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One argument might be "because Signal * has (almost) no tests, * has no CI (at least I could find none), * lacks some basic features competitors have, * sometimes doesn't ring when you call, and * they just closed all 1100 open issues without reading their contents [1]." Don't get me wrong, I think Signal is a great idea and have contributed some code to it, but these look like some red flags to me. Obviously hard to…

All those issues were closed, as it is explained in your link, because they lacked debug logs/steps to reproduce the problem/etc. It's not feasible to dedicate enormous amounts of resources to try to address those issues. You're welcome to re-open them, properly this time, if you want.

That is wrong, they closed issues indiscriminately.

Oh, and they will keep doing so: "Legacy issues that are more than one month old will be closed by an automated process as part of this cleanup effort."

Re: Russia Bans 1.8M Amazon and Google IPs in Attempt to Block Telegram

#189

Post by drdaeman »

pmlnr wrote: post #171
MrDisposable wrote: post #162

Russian here. Good job Roskomnadzor. You just taught quite a few people to use VPN -- including me. And, as a side benefit, you created another image problem for Putin's regime (as if he needed any more of that). I already had Bitlocker on all my PCs, 2FA everywhere, moved from Gmail to Fastmail, and VPN was one of the last privacy-related things I procrastinated on. Now I have VPN on all my desktops and on my phone,…

VPN doesn't give you privacy; it only allows you to bypass blocks (and introduce yourself to blocks in other countries or services though). VPN providers can still log your every move.

The difference is, VPN providers, unlike ISPs normally don't have your home address and passport info[1]. Some don't have your name at all, unless your traffic leaks your identity - e.g. when you're paying for VPN service with Bitcoin. Even more, they're generally out of your jurisdiction, which acts as some barrier against frivolous requests.

_____

[1] In Russia every ISP is legally required to perform this sort of KYC and keep those records for a while.

Re: Russia Bans 1.8M Amazon and Google IPs in Attempt to Block Telegram

#190

Post by jandrese »

hux_ wrote: post #32
gonesilent wrote: post #14

Russia is taking a page out of the China internet playbook. Next it will build out it's own great firewall and slowly unblock services after it gain's control.

There the govt builds the controls. Here Twitter, YouTube and Facebook do. No big difference in my book. In terms of outcomes, only clowns get propped up either way.

Wasting no time with the whatabboutism I see.
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