Next time you find your corporate database breached, just be sure that the siphoned data might already been traded on a Telegram platform. Yes, this news was confirmed by Cyber Intelligence Group named Cyberint that discovered that a large set of hacking groups were super-active in sharing data on the messaging platform, sometimes on broadcasted channels having thousands of followers.
In most cases, those behind the attacks on computer networks were seen buying, selling or sharing some information from the stolen content to authenticate the claims.
“We have seen a 100% rise in Telegram usage cyber criminals and this is bad news for the online community who is busy protecting their data, applications and their overall IT infrastructure from most devastating cyber threats,” said Tal Samra, a Cyber Security professional working at Cyberint.
Many blame the increase in nefarious activity for privacy related concerns on WhatsApp that made the online users ditch the Facebook owned subsidiary for other apps such as Telegram that offer encrypted communication.
From the past 2 years, WhatsApp has restricted its users from sharing content to not more than 1-5 of their chat contacts. Whereas, Telegram doesn’t employ such tactics and offers a public and private chat feature with groups through many broadcast channels. Users can also share large data files that includes text, zipping and those direct through app.
Statistics shared by analytics firm SensorTower in August this year say that the user share increased from 100m to 500m in just past one year, with downloads touching the 1 billion mark last month.
Therefore, time seems to be ripe for the law enforcement agencies to start curbs on the functioning of Russia-based Telegram app. Otherwise, it will become a stole data source for most on the dark web-based forums.
