Telegram - secure, free messaging • Hacker News Board

Re: Telegram - secure, free messaging

#61

Post by lazyjones » Mon, Dec 16, 2013, 11:08 AM UTC

yeukhon wrote: post #53

> Telegram is decentralized! Great. Then... > Telegram servers are spread worldwide for security and speed. So this is what they mean by decentralized.... > As a result, Telegram is the fastest and most secure messaging system in the world And this has exist for how many years? I can probably say everything except private message, google hangout or Facebook chat is already doing it. They have some of the top-notch se…

> I can probably say everything except private message, google hangout or Facebook chat is already doing it. They have some of the top-notch security, network and distributed system developers

... and they are based in US of NSA - no thanks.

Re: Telegram - secure, free messaging

#62

Post by Ihmahr » Mon, Dec 16, 2013, 11:10 AM UTC

digitalengineer wrote: post #50

sillysaurus2 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's done nothing in crypto, and he's rolled his own protocol. That's historically been recipe for disaster regardless of how many honors you hold. Colin Percival is similarly decorated, along with being a cryptographer (he's the FreeBSD security officer): http://www.daemonology.net/papers/ ... yet even his crypto app Tarsnap was broken for over a year before he noticed, due to a typo during an innocent-looking refac…

To bad there's no iOS app.

There is. Search in app store for "telegram". There is also the source available on their website.

EDIT: Oeps, sorry.

Re: Telegram - secure, free messaging

#63

Post by VMG » Mon, Dec 16, 2013, 11:17 AM UTC

arianvanp wrote: post #24

jeswin wrote: post #23

Looks like they kept the interface exactly the same as What's App to attract users. The smiley selection has the entire list of What's App smileys in exactly the same order. What's App is going to be upset, but it might help users.

I always that it was just the order of the emoji unicode range

I think it is, the default android keyboard is using the same emojis

Re: Telegram - secure, free messaging

#64

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Dec 16, 2013, 11:17 AM UTC

techquery wrote: post #57

joosters wrote: post #21

So many dubious claims on just the front page: * 'delivers messages faster than any other application' - any application? Hmmm. They must be using magic. * 'messages are heavily encrypted and can self-destruct' - but like every system, the self-destruction is not assured since it's impossible to enforce. * 'keeps your messages safe from hacker attacks' - a bold claim. Maybe they do some stuff to protect messages, but…

Have you tried the app? I've moved my top-5 chats from WhatsApp just because of speed! The messages are sent really fast. But if you know any other messenger apps for iOS, which are just about so fast, I'll definitely give them a try. Anyway yep, these marketing stuff is a bit too dubious, but what should they write? * is rather fast, faster than some applications * can self-destruct, but sometimes can not (Ha!) * et…

[deleted]

Re: Telegram - secure, free messaging

#65

Post by Ihmahr » Mon, Dec 16, 2013, 11:19 AM UTC

People here are complaining a lot about this app, and rightfully so. However, this is definitely the best encrypted communications app there is for ios and therefore also the only app that is cross platform and able to reach a wide audience. I know they didn't do it completely right, but it definitely seems to be the best option that is currently available.

Re: Telegram - secure, free messaging

#66

Post by userulluipeste » Mon, Dec 16, 2013, 11:21 AM UTC

na85 wrote: post #7

From their FAQ: > Q: How secure is Telegram? > Very secure. We are based on a new protocol, MTProto, built by our own specialists from scratch, with security in mind. At this moment, the biggest security threat to your Telegram messages is your mother reading over your shoulder. We took care of the rest. Oh good, a bunch of randoms have rolled their own crypto. I stopped reading at this point.

"Oh good, a bunch of randoms have rolled their own crypto. I stopped reading at this point."

An ad-hominem attack. This is Hacker News and their work is open, how about making a statement after researching the actual code instead?

Re: Telegram - secure, free messaging

#67

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Dec 16, 2013, 11:22 AM UTC

josu wrote: post #52

ingenter wrote: post #31

>Q: Who are the people behind Telegram? >Telegram is supported by Pavel and Nikolai Durov. I would not trust social network owner with my messages.

This is what the wikipedia says about Pavel[0]: >Durov holds libertarian economic and political views and says he is a vegetarian and identifies as a Taoist. He published anarcho-capitalist manifestos describing his ideas on improving Russia. On his 27th birthday, he donated a million dollars to the Wikimedia Foundation. Well, I think I'd rather trust them than Google or Facebook, after all, you've got to trust someb…

[deleted]

Re: Telegram - secure, free messaging

#68

Post by dalore » Mon, Dec 16, 2013, 11:24 AM UTC

Ihmahr wrote: post #62

digitalengineer wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To bad there's no iOS app.

There is. Search in app store for "telegram". There is also the source available on their website. EDIT: Oeps, sorry.

Searching for "telegram" doesn't find a TextSecure client for iphone.

Re: Telegram - secure, free messaging

#69

Post by MAGZine » Mon, Dec 16, 2013, 11:25 AM UTC

giladvdn wrote: post #17

conroy wrote: post #3

The important thing to remember is that all Telegram messages are always securely encrypted. The difference between messages in Secret Chats and ordinary Telegram messages is in the encryption type: client-client in case of Secret Chats, client-server/server-client for ordinary chats. Where "securely encrypted" means that the Telegram server has full access to message contents for ordinary chats. All chats should be…

Came here to say this. I also don't understand why "secret chats" can't be kept in the cloud. Why can't they store encrypted messages and give them to me to decrypt when I want to?

My guess is that it's a security thing. Even if they don't know the security key, I would prefer if they kept no record of the message.

The real issue is that they could just make a lever that would still store "secret chats," unless if they're being delievered p2p.

Re: Telegram - secure, free messaging

#70

Post by techquery » Mon, Dec 16, 2013, 11:26 AM UTC

thomasfl wrote: post #4

If this get popular and the people behind it can be trusted, this could replace sms and e-mail. The iOS, Android and CLI clients are open source, but I they need to open source the backend too. I also like the idea of giving the noun "telegram" a new meaning.

What is the point for server side open source? You can never trust that this code is launched on the instance which answers to your client' requests.

If you don't trust the backend in some particular way, nothing can help you to trust cloud storage. You should better take a look at end-to-end encrypted chats [1]. In theory they don't allow server to get access to any user data, except the fact of sending messages.

[1] http://core.telegram.org/api/end-to-end