Telegram
's founder and CEO
Pavel Durov
recently boasted about the company's lean operation, but cybersecurity experts warn this could be a major red flag for the messaging app's nearly one billion users.
In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Durov revealed that Telegram employs only "about 30 engineers" and that he is the sole product manager. While Durov presented this as evidence of the company's efficiency, security professionals see it as a potential threat to user safety.
"Without end-to-end encryption, huge numbers of vulnerable targets, and servers located in the UAE? Seems like that would be a security nightmare," said Matthew Green, a cryptography expert at Johns Hopkins University, speaking to TechCrunch.
Unlike apps such as Signal or WhatsApp, Telegram doesn't use end-to-end encryption by default. This means that unless users specifically start a "
Secret Chat
," their messages could potentially be read by Telegram or other parties.
Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, pointed out that Telegram is more than just a messaging app – it's also a social media platform holding vast amounts of user data. She told TechCrunch, "'Thirty engineers' means that there is no one to fight legal requests, there is no infrastructure for dealing with abuse and content moderation issues."
Galperin added that this understaffing could make Telegram an attractive target for hackers, especially those backed by governments.
The platform is popular among cryptocurrency enthusiasts, extremists, and disinformation peddlers, making it a prime target for both criminal and state-sponsored hackers. With such a small team, experts doubt Telegram's ability to effectively combat these threats.
This revelation comes at a time when even the largest tech companies struggle to allocate sufficient resources to cybersecurity. As noted by the well-known cybersecurity expert SwiftOnSecurity on X (formerly Twitter), "The cost to run a company that has all the right cyber security tools and staff is absolutely obscene."
For years, security experts have cautioned against viewing Telegram as a truly secure messaging app. Durov's recent comments suggest the situation may be even more concerning than previously thought.
English (US) ·