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Telegram, the secure messaging platform, is used by pro-democracy campaigners in Hong Kong as a means of keeping communications away from the prying eyes of the Chinese authorities. Telegram has been banned in the country since 2015, but users have found workarounds. Unfortunately, a dangerous new technical issue has arisen with group messaging which could be leaking phone numbers. Protesters claim this has already enabled government agencies to identify and target individuals.
This particular issue doesn't open private message content—these are public groups. But it demonstrates what can happen when the authorities can compromise the privacy within secure platforms. And that's where this is a reminder of what's at stake in the broader encryption debate, and why passions on the subject run so high.
Related: U.S. may outlaw messaging encryption used By WhatsApp, iMessage and others
"Need help from @telegram," tweeted local software engineer Chu Ka-Cheong. "We and multiple teams have independently confirmed a serious vulnerability that causes phone numbers to be leaked to members in public groups, regardless of the privacy setting. Telegram is heavily used in #hkprotest, it put HKers in immediate threats.”
As reported by Reclaim The Net, the vulnerability made public on a popular Hong Kong discussion forum, exploits public access groups, where users in the group have selected to keep their phone number private. If the authorities add thousands of phone numbers to a device and then sync that device with Telegram, they can match stored numbers again ..
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