Pavel Durov, Russian Founder of Telegram, mocking WhatsApp,
said every now and then WhatsApp fixed a critical vulnerability, a new one seemingly
replaced its abode.
Shocking to the world, a bug in WhatsApp's audio call
feature allowed hackers to install spyware onto phones just by calling the victim,
its contending Telegram cautioned users that WhatsApp will remain exposed to
surveillance.
Initiating a scornful dose on the Facebook-owned messaging
app having over 1.5 billion users, Pavel Durov, the Russian founder of
Telegram, said that every time WhatsApp has to fix a critical vulnerability in
their app, a new one seems to appear in its place.
"All of their security matters are accessibly apt for shadowing,
and appear and work a lot like backdoors," Durov wrote in a lengthy post
late Wednesday. The spyware on WhatsApp was purportedly settled by the Israeli
cyber intelligence company NSO Group. In Contrast to Telegram, WhatsApp is not
open source, so there's no way for a security researcher to effortlessly check
whether there are backdoors in its code. Not only WhatsApp doesn't publish its
code, but they also do the exact reverse: WhatsApp intentionally complicates
their apps' binaries to make sure no one is able to study them methodically.
"In nearly six years of its presence, Telegram didn't
have any major data leak or security flaw of the kind WhatsApp demonstrates
every few months," said Durov pointing out having 200 million users
already migrating to Telegram.
WhatsApp's "lack of security allows them to infiltrate
on their own people, so WhatsApp lingers being easily available in places like
Russia or Iran, where Telegram is banned by the authorities," said the
Telegram founder who created the platform to offer securely encrypted
communications.
WhatsApp has a constant history – from zero encryption at
its inception to a succession of security issues strangely suitable for
surveillance purposes.
Three years ago, WhatsApp publicized they implemented
end-to-end encryption so "no third party can access messages".
It coincided with an aggressive push for all of its users to
back up their chats in the cloud.
"When making this push, WhatsApp didn't tell its users
that when backed up, messages are no longer protected by end-to-end encryption
and can be accessed by hackers and law enforcement. Brilliant marketing, and
some naive people serving their time in jail as a result," Durov said.
"Looking back, there hasn't been a single day in
WhatsApp's 10-year expedition when this service was secure. That's why I don't
think that just updating WhatsApp's mobile app will make it secure for
anyone," Durov added.
WhatsApp has not yet publicized many details on the nature
of the spyware attack and its consequences, but it said it had provided evidence
to the US law enforcement to help them conduct an investigation.
Last year, the creators of WhatsApp left the company due to worries
over users' privacy.
"I feel we let humanity down in this whole WhatsApp
spyware story. A lot of people can't stop using WhatsApp, because their friends
and family are still on it.
"The majority of Internet users are still held captive
by the Facebook/WhatsApp/Instagram realm. Many of those who use Telegram is
also on WhatsApp, meaning their phones are still defenceless," Durov
mentioned.
More recently, he said, "we are perceiving the effort
by Facebook to plagiarize Telegram's entire philosophy, with Zuckerberg unexpectedly
announcing the importance of privacy and speed, practically citing Telegram's
app portrayal word for word in his F8 discussion speech".
"We at Telegram have to admit our accountability in establishing the future. It's either us or the Facebook monopoly. It's either freedom and privacy or greed and hypocrisy," he added, stressing that an era of freedom and privacy will begin soon.
Comments
Post a Comment