“You take a knife, you go to a church, you make a carnage, bim. You two slices or three heads and it’s good, it’s over.” These words, Kermiche Adel, one of the two authors of the attack on the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, held them just hours before perpetrating the attack. And he did not hesitate to share them on Telegram, encrypted messaging application that claims more than 100 million users worldwide, and is used by many jihadists eager to communicate beyond the intelligence services and monitoring.
francetv info explain what it is exactly.
What is exactly Telegram?
Telegram is an instant messaging application launched in 2013 by Pavel Durov brothers and Nikolai. Fervent opponents of the Putin regime, the two Russians were exiled in Europe, and say fiercely opposed to the transmission of data to the authorities of private conversations.
The application by which more transiteraient 10 billion messages each day, has experienced rapid success, benefiting in particular from acquisition in February 2014 of its main competitor, WhatsApp, the giant Facebook . The operation has indeed caused the flight to Telegram many users WhatsApp, fearing that their personal data used for advertising purposes.
As n ‘ any conventional messaging tool, the application can talk to one or more friends, groups can contain up to 5000 people. Contacts can be added by their telephone number or by their nickname. In addition to the messages, you can also send pictures, videos, or your location on a map. popular feature on Telegram: the “channels”, discussion forums where anyone can come and talk about a topic.
Why attracted jihadists?
For terrorists, Telegram shows interesting because it also offers “secret chats” whose messages self-destruct after being read by the recipient. These “flash” conversations can be programmed to be erased from five seconds to one week after the exchange.
But the application has mostly bet on a more complex encryption system than its rivals as or WhatsApp Messenger, and “secret” conversations are not stored on any server. The company guarantees the total confidentiality of exchanges, to the point of promising $ 200 000 (180 000) to that piraterait and reveal trade.
Encrypt a conversation? “ This is like putting the message in a box key is closed and is sent by mail. If ever this box is intercepted, it is so strong and the key is so complex that the forces the order fail to open “ shows on RMC Gérôme Billois specialist cyber security.
the application proves therefore doubly useful for jihadists: it allows them to quietly discuss their projects, but also to spread their ideas to as many people through the “channels” on which they can easily broadcast their propaganda.
Could the application designers relax the privacy Telegram?
In September 2015, at the conference startups TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, Pavel Durov was asked what he thought of the fact that jihadists use to communicate its application. Answer: “ The right to privacy is more important than our fear that something bad will produce as terrorism e”. Pavel Durov added that in any case, the jihadists would always find a tool to exchange discreetly on the web. The purpose of the confidentiality was left for him at first to protect cybercriminals or are oppressive regimes. “ I do not think we should feel guilty” , he concluded.
Some consider also that this kind of ultra-encrypted messaging should not disappear. “There is a before and after Snowden. Today for integrity, information security tools we need to protect our data” , said on France Info journalist Jean- Marc Manach, specialist in internet surveillance issues.
Following the attacks of 13 November in Paris, the creators of the application have nonetheless recognized that they were “troubled to learn that the public accounts Telegram were used by EI to spread his propaganda” . They decided to block 78 accounts linked to the Islamic State in 12 languages on one week following the attacks. Telegram also said since she is preparing new procedures to allow users to report her “questionable public content” . A drop of water?
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