In the wake of yet more terrible and disgusting attacks in Paris at the hands of ISIS, also known as Islamic State, the security world has been trying to understand just how and with what these terrorists have become so organized in perpetrating these assaults on our freedom. It would seem like the obvious answer would be apps and messaging services that are both widely available and encrypted to ensure private communication, without International Governments being able to spy and listen in. If reports from security experts, compiled and put together by Reuters are anything to be believed, then Telegram could have been a big part of ISIS’ communication network.
As Reuters is reporting, Alex Kassirer, a counter-terrorism analyst for security firm, Flashpoint, ISIS had been using Telegram’s channels feature to reach a wide audience on the network. Said feature was only introduced back in September of this year, and according to Rita Katz, from extremist watchdog SITE Intelligence Group, ISIS had as many as 30+ different channels on Telegram all being used for press releases and announcements. It’s been said that ISIS had been using Telegram for recruitment as well as to get the word out concerning both the recent assault on Paris and the downing of Russian Metrojet Flight 9268 over Egypt. We say ‘had’ because while Telegram refused to comment on Reuter’s story, they did note on their official Twitter account that they had “blocked 78 ISIS-related channels across 12 languages” and they have asked users of the app to report such channels to [email protected].
Something like this was bound to happen at some point or another, after all Telegram prides itself on offering encrypted communication for all, and messages can even self-destruct after a pre-defined time. The idea with all of this is of course, to keep your personal secrets private and protect businesses using the service as well. With Twitter having taken a hard stance against ISIS in the past, and Telegram now joining them, it looks as though ISIS could be without one more outlet, which is excellent news. As we mentioned above, Telegram has already done their bit to take down these channels and sightings of such use can be reported to Telegram at [email protected].`