Explosion of criminal activity on Telegram, according to investigation. Very secure, the platform is much easier to use than the dark web.
Cybercriminals use Telegram for years because the platform is encrypted and easy to access. According to a recent survey conducted by The Financial Times and the specialist group Cyberint, it seems that there has recently been “an increase of more than 100% in the use of Telegram by cybercriminals”. The Financial Times explains that the explosion of this criminal activity came after the massive arrival of users following the changes to the terms of use initiated by WhatsApp regarding its management of privacy.
Explosion of criminal activity on Telegram, investigation finds
If you remember, WhatsApp asked its users a few months ago to agree to a revised version of its terms of service allowing it to share data with its parent company, Facebook. Users were furious and WhatsApp had to clarify the situation, stating that it will remain unable to read private communications. But the damage was done, people quickly migrated, en masse, to similar secure solutions, like Telegram. This influx has therefore, it seems, brought its share of criminal activity.
Very secure, the platform is much easier to use than the dark web
According to investigators, there is a huge network of hackers sharing and selling data on channels with tens of thousands of subscribers. For information, the number of occurrences of the terms “Email: pass” and “Combo” in the application over this last year would have been multiplied by 4. Some files contain between 300 and 600,000 associations of emails and words password for games and email services. Cybercriminals also sell financial information there, such as credit card numbers, passport copies, and hacking tools.
Tal Samra, Cyber Threat Analyst at Cyberint, explained: “Its encrypted messaging service is increasingly popular among those threat actors who carry out fraudulent activities and sell stolen data… as it is easier to only use the dark web. ” In addition to being easier to use than the dark web, Telegram is also less monitored by authorities, according to Tal Samra.
Telegram removed the channel on which large files of email: password duos were being sold after The Financial Times notified the platform. In a statement, Telegram also said “it has a policy in place for the deletion of personal data shared without consent” and has “an ever-growing force of professional moderators”, who delete around 10,000 public communities every day for violation of Terms of use. A few months ago, these moderators had to actively monitor hundreds of channels to avoid calls for violence following the attacks on the Capitol.
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