What is Telegram, and Why Does It Keep Coming Up in Articles About Cybercriminals?

You may have heard of Telegram before, for a lot of reasons. If you’re concerned about security or know someone who is, you may have come across it or had it recommended to you. Or if you read about cybercrime investigations or how cybercriminals operate, you may have seen Telegram come up in those articles, too. These different contexts can give you mixed messages. Is Telegram safe and a good way to protect your privacy, or is there a reason cybercriminals tend to like it so much?

The answer is more straightforward than you might expect.

What is Telegram?

Telegram is a cloud-based instant messenger service with social media features. Similar to WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or iMessages, you can use Telegram to send text messages, as well as media and files up to 2GB. Telegram also allows voice and video calls, both between individuals and within groups. It’s a very popular messaging app in some areas of Europe, Asia, and Africa.

It also includes some features that most messaging apps don’t have. Telegram has some social media features – you can create public groups with up to 200,000 members, create and post stories, host public livestreams, and post one-way updates. Secret Chats have end-to-end encryption and self-destruct after a certain amount of time. It’s available on both mobile (Android and iOS) and desktop (Windows, macOS, and Linux), as well as a browser-based version. And, since it’s cloud-based, your chat history will sync across all your devices.

One thing to note, though, is that unlike other secure messaging apps like Signal, Telegram only lets you send messages to other people with Telegram accounts.

Why do People Use Telegram?

Many people who use Telegram do so for the privacy and security aspects of it. The app lets you set up a username and use that instead of a phone number, and many people like that Telegram keeps your phone number safe. The company makes the source code and APIs available publicly, so tech-inclined people can see exactly how it works. It’s also funded by one of the company’s founders, so it’s not selling your data to turn a profit. The promise of privacy is one of its biggest selling points.

Other people like Telegram for its features. Because it’s cloud-based, you won’t lose your chats or message history if something happens to your device, and you can use it on multiple devices and sync between them. You can edit messages after you send them, use Secret Chats that self-destruct and can’t be forwarded, have group chats of up to 200,000 people (way more than most messaging apps), and use picture-in-picture mode to keep chatting while you watch videos. Plus many people appreciate the social media features tied into the app. So some people who don’t care about being safe or private use Telegram just as a messaging app with a lot of useful features.

Why do Cybercriminals Like It?

From scammers sharing new tactics to hackers trading virus code to a whole criminal underworld offering supplies for crimes and illegal services, Telegram keeps coming up in a lot of articles about malicious people doing nefarious things. It may make you wonder if Telegram is safe. But in reality, criminals like the service for a lot of the same reasons honest people do. They want privacy and anonymity. After all, they don’t want to get caught!

The Secret Chat function with end-to-end encryption and self-destructing messages is great for them. Huge group chats enable them to get large groups of criminals together, media and file sharing makes it easy to share tools and tactics for committing their crimes, and a global reach lets them connect with fellow criminals all over the world. The company is committed to privacy, so nobody at Telegram is going to be looking for them. And it’s a lot harder for law enforcement to monitor Telegram than it is for them to monitor the dark web. It’s also a lot easier to access and use than the dark web.

All of these features make Telegram a useful, feature-rich, and generally safe tool for the average person to use. But they also make it a great place for criminals to connect with each other while staying under law enforcement’s radar.

Should I Use Telegram?

Telegram is, as far as we can tell, safe to use. The company is very open about how they operate and there’s no strong indication of risk. It has a lot of great features that may be useful for you. But it also may not be the best choice. The cloud sync is useful because it lets you sync chats across devices and keeps everything backed up. But that also means that your messages aren’t end-to-end encrypted by default and the company stores your chat information on their servers. It’s secure because the company is committed to privacy, not because there’s technology keeping it secure.

Since there are many apps that now have end-to-end encryption by default, including WhatsApp, Signal, and now even Facebook Messenger and Google Messages, if privacy is your primary concern, Telegram may not be the best choice. But if you want some reasonable privacy benefits while maintaining convenience and a lot of cool features, it might be what you need.

Telegram isn’t dangerous in and of itself. It’s not going to connect you with criminals any more than Facebook Messenger will. Just because criminals are using the app doesn’t mean the app itself isn’t safe. But Telegram’s big challenge is that you can’t use it to message people outside Telegram. If you want to use it, that’s great. But you’ll have to get all your contacts on board for it to be really useful.