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Comment by dharma1 | Hacker News Reader

If FSB really wants access - and sooner or later they will, as Telegram keeps growing... As long as Telegram founders still have family inside Russia, they are vulnerable

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You see Russia is in a unique position. They want to fight dissent online, they have a very competitive ISP market with lots and lots of ISPs that are hard to control, they have a lot of foreign companies taking a huge share of internet usage, they alienated IT professionals and don't really have smart loyal people who can help them figure these things out. So they seek guidance in China and follow Chinese ideas to monitor and filter online communications. Meaning that they are trying to figure out how to pressure foreign companies like Telegram to cooperate, how to pressure ISPs to cooperate, how to block access to the services foreign companies provide, given how many different ISPs there are. So at this point it's more like a process, not an actual end goal of getting access to this one particular platform. And family is definitely not the line they would want to cross, as it would undermine the whole process if the word gets out.

Couldn't that be rephrased to "As long as Telegram founders still have family, they are vulnerable"?

Russian ops can't even poison an expat without severe consequences, kidnapping or murdering people outside of Russia would be an act of war

They likely can, we learn only about the cases where it blows up.

Errr, They (probably) did that a few weeks ago:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43443271

You've got to be kidding. The recent chemical weapon attack was done for the shock value, because they literally do not give AF about the consequences. It's Putin flexing on the world stage.

> Russian ops can't even poison an expat without severe consequences

Only because of the public backlash against the local government last time they were known to have poisoned someone in the same country without consequences.

> kidnapping or murdering people outside of Russia would be an act of war

It would, but that hasn't stopped them before.

What consequences though? There's a bit of posturing regarding a recent case, but I haven't seen too much of consequence.

Like they couldn't poison Litvitenko with polonium and Skripal and his daughter with a nerve agent a few days ago?

Do the founders have family in Russia? I'm not really up to date with Telegram as a company or the people behind it.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/27/meet-telegram-a-secure-mess...

> Meet Telegram, A Secure Messaging App From The Founders Of VK, Russia’s Largest Social Network

Does no one care that Digital Ocean is owned and created by Russia? You're all worried about apps, what about the hosts they use?

>Does no one care that Digital Ocean is owned and created by Russia?

Really? Source? I thought they were based in NYC?

Just because the founders immigrated from Russia as youth, doesn't mean "Digital Ocean is owned and created by Russia"

Where you get that from? Wikipedia page about DigitalOcean mentions it's an American company from New York City. What makes you say it's owned and created by Russia (which I think you mean the Russian Government)?

I care, but had no idea. Any more info? Search not showing up much.

It's not true.

Google is also founded by Russian immigrants, it does not mean its owned and is created in Russia...

> Meet Telegram, A Secure Messaging App From The Founders Of VK, Russia’s Largest Social Network

Well, there goes any interest I ever had in using Telegram.

Why?

Cause Russia's fucked?

I've never before seen such a crude, off-the-cuff answer be so accurate.

So's everywhere else. If you're gonna be sending the info to some government, why not spread it around a little so everyone only has part of the picture?

Well, he lost control of VK years ago and seems to be working hard to prevent that from happening again.

That's part of why I trust it enough to use it (at least for some of my communication. )

Either lost control or donated it to FSB in secret. He's not exactly a knight in shining armor, judging from all that 'Facebook cloning' affair.

Then why has Telegram been sharing an office with VK?

Pavel Durov left Russia several years ago.

So shall we assume that NSA/Mossad/MI5/whatever has secret keys?

They don't need the keys. They made sure they can predict the elliptic curve coefficients. A lot more ellegant an approach don't you think?

But what if their family members are sitting on a bench in the UK? Lets face it, there are less places you are safe from russia than places you arent.

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