Don't Shoot the Messenger

In the aftermath of a recent terror attack, government officials all over the world renewed their calls for backdoors in end-to-end encrypted messaging apps. At the same time, journalists made the usual heap of mistakes in their coverage. Thanks to these mistakes, I got quite a few questions from surprised Telegram users. So let's set a few things straight.

How is my Telegram data protected?

Telegram's Secret Chats use end-to-end encryption, thanks to which there is no data that could be shared with anyone.

To protect the data that is not covered by end-to-end encryption, Telegram uses a distributed infrastructure. Cloud Chat data is stored in multiple data centers around the globe that are controlled by different legal entities spread across different jurisdictions. The relevant decryption keys are split into parts and are never kept in the same place as the data they protect. As a result, several court orders from different jurisdictions are required to force us to give up any data.

Thanks to this structure, no single government or block of like-minded countries can intrude on people's privacy and freedom of expression. Telegram can be forced to give up data only if an issue is grave and universal enough to pass the scrutiny of several different legal systems around the world.

But what about the terrorists?

Indeed, let's take a look at how terrorists may use messaging apps and, more importantly, what we can do to stop them.

Private messages

People mostly fear that terrorists would use encrypted apps to send secret messages to prepare and coordinate their attacks.

If you don't look too closely, it may indeed seem tempting to simply ban end-to-end encryption to stop terrorists from exchanging coded messages. The sad truth is that this will not work. Terrorists are prepared to face great discomfort to ensure that their communications are secure and their task is successful, including the discomfort of death itself. So if you ban or backdoor existing messaging apps, they will immediately switch to one of the following options:

1. Make their own apps. The technology for creating encrypted messaging apps is public knowledge. Anyone can make an end-to-end encrypted messenger today. And, guess what, ISIS already has one. They've had their own app since at least January, 2016. This app may not have too many shiny features, and you'd have to manually install it, bypassing the Apple or Google Store, but it works.
2. Use other methods of communication. You, as an ordinary user, would not want to buy a new phone, make a call, write an SMS message, and then throw the device into a dumpster. But this is exactly how the Paris terrorists communicated to organize and carry out the deadliest ISIS attacks in Europe to date.

As you can see, in many cases terrorists won't even have to switch to anything, since they have perfectly viable alternatives to the existing encrypted apps. You, on the other hand, do not.

Ordinary people are not prepared to face the discomfort of apps with poor usability, let alone to use "burner phones" or pigeon post for privacy. As a result, the only thing government-mandated backdoors can achieve is make mass surveillance possible again and expose your private data to hackers and corrupt officials from developing countries. [1]

Public messages

But this doesn't mean we can't throw a wrench in the terrorists' wheels. Another key way in which terrorists use mass communication services is to spread their message and make as many people as possible aware of their acts.

It is for this reason that all kinds of terrorist organizations have lately taken to social media like Twitter, Facebook, and others to publicize their content and threats. Telegram is unique among encrypted messengers in that it has Channels – a tool for sending open public messages to unlimited audiences. Naturally, terrorists have attempted to use this tool for ISIS-related broadcasts too. But, same as the other networks, Telegram took steps to kick them off this public platform.

Same as on the other networks, terrorist channels keep popping up now and then, but get reported almost immediately and are shut down within hours, well before they can achieve any traction.

And yet, no matter how hard Telegram and the others are trying, terrorists have a powerful ally that helps them spread their message of terror far and wide.

Terrorism is the message

The single most important technology for terrorism is not the weapons used in the attacks, and not the messages that are exchanged to coordinate them. It's the press that covers these attacks.

Terrorism is impossible in a world without mass media. [2] This is because any other cause of death or destruction dwarfs acts of terror in comparison, however cruel and unjust they may be. Cancer, heart disease, road accidents, and soap on the bathroom floor kill more people daily than terrorists in any given year. So the main job of a terrorist is to convince you that their savage acts are more relevant to you than the roughly 150.000 deaths from other causes that occur each day.

And the mass media steps in to help them, because unsettling news always bring page views. And page views bring money. And thus, terror spreads on the wings of the free but click-hungry press.

What can I do?

If you're a journalist, remember this whenever you cover a terror attack:

Especially if you include gory pictures, heart-rending stories, or extensive details on the perpetrators and their "mission". [3]

If you're an ordinary person like the rest of us, try to refrain from passing on the "news" to friends and relatives and posting on social networks. That would mean spreading terror in a way that no terrorist could ever hope to do, to people they would've never reached without you.

So instead, tell others about what you've just read. And of course, give consolation and any support you can to the victims and their families in the unlikely event that you have a connection to them.

__________

Notes

[1] Because there is no way in which a backdoor can be exclusive. Once it exists, it is only a matter of time before hackers find an unofficial way of using it to get to your data. And if you live in South America, Russia, China, or many other countries, you may find that the official use of those same backdoors may differ wildly from what you can expect in societies with a stronger rule of law.

[2] And indeed, terrorism did not exist in its present form until the middle of the XIX century, by which time newspapers and telegraph networks united the world's information flows together for the first time in history.

[3] Just how many people would be happy to die in "lone wolf" attacks if they knew they would not get their face on the front page in every newspaper the next morning? Or if they at least knew they would be labelled as "standalone suckers" instead of "lonely wolves".