Telegram is a cloud-based instant messaging and voice-over IP service. As of December 2023, Telegram has 700 million monthly active users.
Telegram provides end-to-end encrypted calls and optional “secret” chats between two online users on smartphone clients. However, the desktop clients (excluding macOS clients) do not feature end-to-end encryption, nor is end-to-end encryption available for groups, supergroups, or channels. Telegram has defended the lack of ubiquitous end-to-end encryption by claiming that online backups that do not use client-side encryption are “the most secure solution currently possible’.
How To Protect Your Telegram Account
- Enable two-factor account authentication. It’s not a silver bullet, but it will make stealing your account harder.
- Be wary of messages from accounts that are not in your address book, and don’t follow suspicious links. Telegram administrator accounts have verification badges in the account information. If you receive a message supposedly from Telegram, but there is no such badge, it’s a scam. Another telltale sign is if Telegram prompts you about marking the message as spam. Obviously, the service won’t detect a message from itself as spam.
Official Telegram accounts have badges, fake accounts do not
- Before entering personal info on any Web page, check that the connection is secure, and take a close look at the domain name of the page in the address bar. In this case, it should be telegram.org, not telegram-antispam.org, antispam-verification.com, or any such variant.
- Install a security solution with antiphishing capability on every device that permits it.
