Telegram in Russia

Main article: Telegram Messenger

Audience

2024

More than 61 million Russians use Telegram daily, VKkontakte - 55 million

On July 11, 2024, it became known that the daily audience of Telegram in Russia reached 61 million users, while 55 million Russians visit VKontakte daily. Read more here.

The Ministry of Digital Development estimated the share of Telegram in Russian mobile traffic at 10%

The Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation estimated the share of Telegram in Russian mobile traffic at 10% in February 2024. In comparison with February 2022, the share of the messenger quadrupled.^[1]

2023

Telegram audience in Russia grew by 31.5 million users in 2 years

By October 2023, Telegram's audience in Russia reached 82.3 million users, which is 31.5 million more than two years earlier. This is evidenced by Mediascope data published in December 2023.

44.2 million Russians use the messenger every day. Russia accounts for 27.2% of global Telegram traffic. Telegram ranks 2nd in the ranking of the most popular Android applications in Russia, and 4th in the App Store.

Maria Saikina, chief analyst at RAEK, says that in 2023 Telegram took 5th place among all online resources in terms of average daily coverage. The messenger is actively used both for text communication and for the consumption of media content, and it is the latter factor that most significantly affects the growth of traffic, the expert believes.

And "stories" as part of the media content certainly contributed to this growth, "Saikina added.

In July 2023, Telegram entered the top 3 services with the largest traffic volume in Russia for the first time, losing only VK and, YouTube the "representative" said. To sheetsBeeline According to him, Telegram traffic in the operator's network has been growing since the beginning of 2023 "with pronounced event bursts."

In July [2023], after the launch of stories (the format of "stories"), we recorded an increase in traffic, but whether it is connected with stories or with information consumption, it is impossible to say unequivocally. There was no explosive growth, "Bilaine told the publication.

According to Megafon, in July 2023, YouTube (19.3%), VKontakte (11.1%) and Telegram (8%) entered the top 3 applications in terms of traffic consumption. The operator has been recording Telegram's steady growth since the beginning of the year, a company spokesman added.^[2]

Telegram is used daily by more than 40% of the Russian population

In March 2023, Telegram ranked fifth among Russian Internet resources in terms of daily audience. More than 40% of the population uses it daily, more than 60% at least once a month. This is stated in a study by Mediascope, which was published in May 2023.

According to experts, during 2022 Telegram constantly increased the volume of the audience. A sharp increase in the audience and time spent on the consumption of the site fell on March 2022 under the influence of two events at the same time - the start of a military special operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine and the blocking of social networks banned in Russia. Another step in the increase occurred in September 2022 when the partial mobilization was announced. The increase occurred in all classroom groups, more noticeably - in the middle and older in age, due to which the platform for the year from the youth itself became universal and similar to other main social networks and instant messengers.

Telegram combines the functions of a messenger and a social network. As of March 2023, about 70% of Telegram users read any channels, not just exchange messages. Almost a quarter of people under the age of 25 use only Telegram and do not use Whatsapp (owned by Meta, which is recognized as an extremist in Russia; its activities are prohibited). Reading channels for young people accounts for a little more than 10% of the use of the service. Middle-aged and older people spend almost half of their time on Telegram reading channels, preferring Whatsapp as the main messenger.

According to the results of the first quarter of 2023, Telegram took the sixth position in the top of the most visited sites on a daily basis in Russia. On average, users spend 39 minutes a day on Telegram, the messenger accounted for 6% of Internet consumption in the Russian Federation, the study says.^[3]

Telegram for the first time bypassed YouTube in terms of daily audience in Russia

The daily Russian audience of the messenger in March 2023 amounted to 50.9 million people, video hosting - 50.7 million. The growth of Telegram's daily audience since January 2022 was plus 104%.

2021: Leader in mobile traffic in most regions of Russia

In 2021, Telegram became the fastest growing messenger in: Russia over the year, the volume mobile internet traffic in the service more than doubled. Specialists came to such conclusions MegaFon on the basis big data of analysis and reported this on December 22, 2021. More. here

2024

Theft of Telegram channels under the pretext of advertising

In October 2024, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia recorded a significant increase in the number of theft of Telegram channels carried out by cybercriminals under the guise of placing advertising integrations from large marketplaces.

According to TASS, the department for organizing the fight against the illegal use of information and communication technologies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia has identified a new fraud scheme aimed at administrators and owners of Telegram channels.

Fraudsters in Russia began to steal Telegram channels under the pretext of advertising

Criminals demonstrate a high level of preparation for the implementation of illegal actions. To create the appearance of legitimacy, they are holding lengthy talks with potential victims that could go on for weeks. During the discussion, fraudsters work out in detail the terms of advertising placement, agree on content and negotiate the cost of services.

The final stage of the fraudulent scheme is the offer to register in the advertising office of the marketplace. Channel administrators are offered to follow the link to a phishing site, which is an exact copy of the official resource, and send a confirmation code for linking an account.

After passing the confirmation code, the owners lose access to their accounts. The successful implementation of the fraudulent scheme allows attackers to gain control not only over Telegram channels, but also access to all personal correspondence of users.

Cybersecurity experts recommend that Telegram channel administrators show increased vigilance when receiving offers for advertising cooperation. Special attention should be paid to authenticating websites and never passing confirmation codes to third parties. In addition, the owner of Telegram channels is recommended to use two-factor authentication and regularly check the security settings of their accounts to minimize the risks of unauthorized access.^[4]

Fraudsters began sending viruses to Russian Telegram users under the guise of photos

In October 2024, it became known that the Department for Organizing the Fight against the Illegal Use of Information and Communication Technologies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the official Telegram channel of its division announced a new fraud scheme in the Telegram messenger. Attackers send private messages to users with malicious files disguised as images.

According to TASS, scammers send files with the "APK" extension, passing them off as ordinary photos. However, as experts from the Ministry of Internal Affairs emphasize, photographs cannot have such an extension that is typical for malicious software.

Fraudsters began sending viruses to Russian Telegram users, disguising them as photos

Experts cyber security note that files with the "APK" extension are usually used to install applications on devices with an operating system. Android Attackers use this feature to force users to inadvertently install on malware theirs. smartphones

The Ministry of Internal Affairs strongly recommends that Telegram users be vigilant and under no circumstances download suspicious files, especially if they are sent by strangers or have unusual extensions.^[5]

Many channels masquerading as Russian are associated with the Ukrainian authorities

Despite the "anonymity," most administrators of telegram channel networks are known. In October 2024, State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein named some of those who, according to him, are associated with the Ukrainian authorities:

• Taras Chornoivan, a native and citizen of Ukraine, has previous convictions. It administers one of the largest pro-Ukrainian nets, which includes the channels: Kompromat GRU, KGB-NKVD, Cello Case - RUSPRES, Echo of Moscow, Sobchak Portfolio, Colonel SVR, Another Roldugin, Cheka-GPU, Clan Mazaraki. The infill of the grid is constantly changing: old channels are blocked, but new ones appear.

• Konstantin Chernenko, a native and citizen of Ukraine. He leads a grid of channels: "K1," "Anticor," "Drama," "RUScompromising," "Nocor," etc. His partner is Igor Savchuk, a native and citizen of Ukraine, an ex-employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a participant in hostilities in the Southeast as part of the Bandera battalion "Kyiv."

• Yaroslav Grekov, a native of the Russian Federation, lives in Thailand. The administrator of the channel "Boutique FSB," which constantly supports the news feeds Chornoivan and Chernenko. It does not produce unique content itself, but often becomes an entry point for spreading negativity in the interests of these grids.

• Spouses Aleksei Kozlov and Anastasia Abakumova (citizen of Ukraine), live in Montenegro. Administrators of the DOFA resource (formerly The Moscow Post). In addition, Kozlov is the editor-in-chief of Nebokhod-Media LLC, which includes the network publications Morning News, Documents and Facts.

All of the above people are actively cooperating with the SBU, which means they are working against Russia. It is reliably known, for example, that Savchuk performed the tasks of the famous 72nd center of the CIPSO (now the special center "North" or military unit A4398 of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is one of the main Ukrainian military centers for information and psychological struggle).

Administrators and channel owners (together with the SBU) - see a lot of personal data of their readers (photo, date of birth, nickname, phone number, etc.)

The collected databases fall into a fraudulent call center, which in many ways operate in Ukraine under the guise of the SBU.

Nikname @ moscow in Telegram sold for ₽20 million

On the crypto platform Fragment, created by the developers of Telegram, a record deal was held to sell the unique nickname @ moscow. This became known in October 2024. The acquisition cost was 40,000 TON coins, equivalent to ₽20 million at the current exchange rate.

The nikname auction started on October 3, 2024 with an initial bid of 10 TON. During the week, the price increased 4,000 times, reaching a total of 40,000 TON by October 10, 2024.

Telegram

The winner of the auction was the Moscow Today news channel. The administration of the channel explained the purchase by the desire to have the most memorable username among Moscow Telegram channels.

The story of @ moscow nickname in the Russian market began back in 2020, when Denis Marzaganov, the author of the Marzaganov Broadcasts channel, tried to acquire it. However, then the deal did not take place, and the nickname was sold to an unknown person for ₽5 million. The current sale brought the previous owner a profit of ₽15 million, which may indicate the initial investment nature of the purchase.

Fragment, a Telegram username exchange, is part of the messenger ecosystem and runs on the basis of TON (Telegram Open Network) blockchain technology. TON is a decentralized computer network with a built-in proxy and anonymizer, providing messaging, cryptocurrency payments and data storage functions.

Experts note a growing interest in unique digital identifiers. Earlier, the nickname penis was sold on the same platform for ₽2 million, which is significantly inferior to the value of @ moscow.

The deal with nickname @ moscow demonstrates new trends in the digital economy, where virtual assets are gaining more and more value. Experts predict further growth in the market for unique identifiers in social networks and instant messengers^[6]

In St. Petersburg, officials were banned from using Telegram and WhatsApp

Since September 2024, government employees have been St. Petersburg banned from using messengers Telegram WhatsApp to exchange official information. According to the information provided by the office of the vice-governor of the city, the decision is related to the need to ensure the protection of correspondence and data of civil servants from compromise, destruction or modification. Instead, it was proposed to use the Russian eXpress platform, which meets the requirements. information security More here

Analysts of the Russian CIA department were banned from using Telegram

At the end of January 2024, information appeared that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) banned employees of its analytical department specializing in Russia from using the Telegram messenger on personal computers. At the same time, analysts of the department are showing interest in this cross-platform instant messaging system, since it is used by many Russian military bloggers. Read more here.

In Russia, a scheme for tax evasion through Telegram bots has been identified. Damage to the budget estimated at 9 billion rubles

In Russia, a scheme for tax evasion through Telegram has been identified. It became known at the end of January 2024.

According to RBC, citing sources in law enforcement agencies and the tax service, a platform for the sale of one-day firms and fictitious VAT accrual has been identified in the Central Federal District (Central Federal District). about the investigation, services for the so-called "paper" VAT were distributed by Telegram bots. One of the interlocutors of the publication estimated the damage from the work of the site at 9 billion rubles.

Searches at ten addresses in Moscow and the Moscow region were confirmed by the publication in the Federal Tax Service. The service noted that all participants in the scheme have been identified - both the performers and their clients. Among those using the tax evasion scheme were companies that received funding from the budget, one of the sources said.

Searches in this case, in particular, are carried out in the offices of individual entrepreneur Tatyana Andreychuk, her husband Yuri Andreychuk and at the addresses of the place of residence of both, says one of the sources, noting that employees of the "K" department of the economic security service of the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Investigative Committee and the Federal Tax Service.

VAT is the largest source of revenue for the Russian budget, but there is a "paper" VAT scheme that allows companies to evade paying this tax. When using this scheme, the company includes fictitious transactions with one-day firms in the relationship chain, which increases the "input" VAT and reduces the amount of tax payable.

The head of the Federal Tax Service (FTS) Daniil Egorov told RBC that by the beginning of January 2024, taxpayers rarely "themselves they construct a VAT scheme by craft method, "special shadow platforms are engaged in illegal tax reimbursement activities^[7]

2023

Advertising sales in the Russian segment of Telegram for the year reached 3.7 billion rubles

Advertising sales in the Russian segment of Telegram in 2023 reached 3.7 billion rubles. This was reported in April 2024 in Roskomnadzor with reference to the data of the Unified Register of Internet Advertising, the operator of which is the department.^[8]

Moscow court sentenced Telegram channel administrator to 14 years in prison for treason

On December 27, 2023, the Second Western District Military Court in Moscow sentenced Felix Yeliseyev, administrator of two Telegram channels (included in the list of terrorists and extremists of Rosfinmonitoring), to 14 years in prison on charges of treason and public justification of terrorism. He will serve his sentence in a maximum security penal colony. The convict was fined 100 thousand rubles. Read more here.

Russia has developed software to determine the owners of Telegram channels

Russia has developed software to determine the owners of Telegram channels. It was called "Comrade Major." This is a product of T.Hunter. Read more here.

Fraudsters fake telegram accounts of CEOs of the largest Russian companies

BI.ZONE has identified massive attacks on representatives of large Russian businesses and government organizations based on social engineering methods. Attackers contact employees of companies using fake Telegram accounts. Accounts contain F.I.O. and photos of top managers. BI.Zone announced this on September 18, 2023. Read more here.

Ministry of Digital Development of the Saratov region banned employees from using iPhone and Telegram

The Ministry of Digital Development and Communications of the Saratov Region has banned its employees from using the Telegram messenger and Apple devices for official purposes. This became known in mid-August 2023. Read more here.

A scheme to deceive customers through photos of bank cards has appeared in Russia

A new Telegram fraud scheme has been recorded in Russia. Representatives of VTB shared information about this with TAdviser on July 19, 2023.

As experts found out, bank under various pretexts cybercriminals they hack into an account messenger in and ask acquaintances and loved ones of the user to transfer funds to their account in a third-party bank, using a fake design maps of large credit institutions.

Fraudsters implement this scheme in two stages. First, Telegram receives a message from a friend who asks to vote for a relative at the competition, purchase stock products, etc. When clicking on the link, the user is asked to indicate the phone number and confirm the vote with an SMS code. In fact, the client is on a phishing resource and enters a password that allows scammers to access his Telegram account.

Then, from the hacked account, fraudsters send messages with a story about the force majeure that occurred and a request to transfer money to their card number. In fact, her image is a fake created using a special Telegram bot. The card number is real, but the account is in another bank - as a rule, not so large and noticeable, so this does not cause suspicion among users.

This scheme allows scammers to buy time to withdraw stolen funds. A customer who has lost money first contacts a bank whose design was used by scammers, and only then realizes that he actually sent the money to another organization. At the same time, fraudsters manage to cash out the funds received and use them for their own purposes.

"The activity of fraudsters in Telegram has intensified in recent weeks, we receive customer messages about attempts to hack their accounts, which are subsequently used in such schemes. The innovation was a bot that allows you to fake an image of a card and send customers "on a false trail," "said Nikita Chugunov, Senior Vice President of VTB, Head of the Digital Business Department.

According to him, earlier these were isolated cases, fraudsters changed the name and substituted the design of the card of the necessary bank in manual mode using graphic editors. Now the attackers have automated the process using a Telegram bot and are making fakes many times faster. The use of such technology in the hands of fraudsters, according to the top manager, can become widespread.

"In order not to fall victim to such schemes, we ask our users to carefully check the messages that even your friend or relative may send. Remember that his account can already be hacked, so at the slightest doubt, it is better to check this information with him personally and in alternative channels - for example, with a simple phone call. To restore access to your account, a person always needs the time that scammers use for their criminal purposes. It is important to know this and not give them a chance to catch you on this trick, "warns Nikita Chugunov.

To protect your account, experts advise setting up two-step authentication in the "Privacy" section and setting a cloud password, which will be requested when logging in from a new device in addition to SMS code.

If the Telegram account is still hacked, do not panic. You must complete all active sessions first. To do this, select the "Privacy" item, then in the "Devices" menu click "End all other sessions" and change the password. You can also write on other social networks or instant messengers that the account was hacked so that subscribers would not fall for the tricks of scammers. To control the access of third parties to the Telegram account, it is necessary to periodically check the application settings in the messenger.

The number of phishing data theft schemes through Telegram in Russia has grown 67 times

The number of phishing data theft schemes through Telegram in Russia increased 67 times over the year - from 7 in May 2022 to 470 a year later. This was announced at the end of May 2023 by RTK-Solar.

According to the expert "RTK-Solar" Alexander Vurasko, a powerful wave of attacks on Telegram users does not stop from the fall of 2022. Scammers most often use social phishing resources to steal access to an account. Since the beginning of 2023, experts have recorded fake sites that offered to vote at the children's drawing competition, sign a petition, donate money for the treatment of a child, receive social benefits, etc.

In another scenario, a fraudster under the guise of an advertising manager of a large company writes to the Telegram channel administrator about the desire to regularly post ads in the community. To get paid for these services, they offer to register in the "partner network," but after entering data on a phishing site, the administrator loses access to the account and/or channel, Asya Shabalina, digital director of the iTrend communication agency, described the scheme.

Sometimes the channel administrator is offered to authenticate in resources that simulate the TGStat and Telemetr analytics services, and as a result, his login and password fall into the hands of criminals, added Vadim Shelest, a leading MTS Red expert.

According to Vurasko, blocking a phishing resource that steals Telegram user accounts takes from 4 to 24 hours. According to BI.ZONE estimates, from January to May 2023, almost 4,000 phishing domains were identified.

Andrei Arsentiev, head of analytics and special projects at InfoWatch Group, told the publication that the number of Russian-speaking Telegram users in 2022 doubled to 75 million people, which led to a trend towards an increase in phishing attacks.^[9]

Telegram overtook WhatsApp for the first time in terms of traffic in Russia

Telegram for the first time overtook WhatsApp (owned by Meta, recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation) in terms of traffic in Russia. This happened in 2022, Vedomosti writes on January 23, 2023, citing data from the largest Russian mobile operators.

Thus, the representative of MTS told the publication that the share of Telegram at the end of 2022 amounted to about 80% in the total volume of user traffic of instant messengers, and in terms of user activity it bypasses WhatsApp. The company clarified that WhatsApp is ahead of other messengers in terms of the number of users.

According to MegaFon, Telegram has maintained its leadership position in traffic since March 2022. In the last two weeks of December of the same year, its share in the total volume of traffic in instant messengers reached 61%, WhatsApp - 28%. VimpelCom reported that the volume of Telegram traffic in 2022 exceeded WhatsApp.

Tele2 reported that Telegram accounts for about 75% of all messenger traffic. On WhatsApp - 19%. At the same time, Telegram has not yet overtaken WhatsApp in terms of the number of users and is in second place, the operator added.

According to Karen Kazaryan, chief analyst of the Russian Association of Electronic Communications, Telegram will overtake WhatsApp in terms of the number of users in the country very soon.

Since WhatsApp has almost the entire mobile audience in Russia. Even if they catch up to overtake, the number of WhatsApp users should decline, "Ghazaryan said.

From the Mediascope statistics provided to the publication, it follows that by the beginning of January, compared to last year, the Telegram audience increased from 25.5 to 48.8 million users per day. Thus, by January 2023, the Telegram audience in Russia amounted to about 40% of all Internet users in the country, Vedomosti notes^[10]

2022

Increase in the average cost of an advertising post in Russian news Telegram channels by 341%

The average cost of advertising in Telegram news channels in Russia in 2022 amounted to 55,940 rubles, which is 341% more than a year earlier, when the figure was measured at 12,680 rubles. This is evidenced by data from the BeSeed native advertising platform, which was released at the end of May 2023.

As Vedomosti writes with reference to BeSeed materials, in all thematic categories in total, the cost of advertising in Telegram, in 2022, increased by an average of 76.5% and reached 29,050 rubles. The study analyzed advertising prices for about 350 Telegram channels - from small blogs (less than 10,000 subscribers) to large ones (more than 500,000), a BeSeed representative told the publication.

According to the study, a multiple increase in advertising prices was recorded in Telegram channels about real estate - by 143% to 30,775 rubles, health - by 138% to 11,978 rubles, job search - by 124% to 22,075 rubles and about urban communities - by 102% to 17,608 rubles). However, news channels showed "the most abnormal dynamics," BeSeed points out.

According to Mediascope, cited by the publication, news channels make up 43% of the top 30 Telegram channels in terms of average daily coverage among Russians over 12 years old.

Among channels with an audience of 500 thousand subscribers in the news segment, the largest increase in the price of an advertising post, according to BeSeed analysts, was shown by Moskvach (665,580 subscribers) and Baza (911 800 subscribers). Moskvach's price increased by 72.8% - to about 198 thousand rubles, Baza's - by 66.7% to 180 thousand rubles.

Mash (1.8 million subscribers) in 2022, the cost of advertising increased by 71%, to about 600 thousand rubles, said Arthur Karapetyan, head of the Social Mind digital agency.^[11]

Telegram channels of Russians began to "steal" in a new way. Scheme

At the end of December 2022, it became known about the new scheme of "hijacking" Telegram accounts in Russia. It's about using fake contests.

According to Kaspersky Lab, someone from the user's contact list asks him to take part in some online voting and sends a link to the site. To count votes, you need to enter your phone number and verification code. If a user does this, their account is likely to be stolen, experts warn.

In fact, there is no competition, and the messages are written not by a friend from the contact list, but by an attacker who previously stole his account , "Kaspersky Lab said in a statement.

The user is convinced to take the necessary actions by talking about the child participating in the competition, or write "vote for me," without going into details.

The polling site looks simple. On the first page - the message "Come in and vote for the contestants," the field for entering the phone, the proposal to authenticate for counting the voice and the field for entering the confirmation code, which was allegedly sent to the user in Telegram.

After the user specifies the phone number, the attackers log into his account using special scripts from the new device. When disabled two-factor authentications , the confirmation code comes to the device where the account is already activated. If a user enters a code on a phishing page, his account becomes the property of cybercriminals.

"Hijackers" will have the right to manage the victim's account and can link it to another phone, experts say. Fraudsters can also use the account to send fraudulent links through the victim's account, can export her contact list, personal data, correspondence history, files.^[12]

The Ministry of Digital Development warned of a massive "theft" of accounts in Telegram

In mid-December 2022, Ministry of Digital Development warned of a massive "theft" of Telegram accounts and talked about the scheme used by scammers:

• the user receives a message from someone from the contact list that he sent the user a gift - a subscription to Telegram Premium;
• the user clicks on the button, and at that moment he receives an authorization code. The gift screen says that this code must be entered to activate the premium subscription;
• the user enters this code, and his account is immediately opened from the attacker on the computer;
• the new account immediately sends such messages throughout the contact list and deletes them from the sent list. At the same time, the message remains with the recipients.

As noted in the Ministry of Digital Development, when stealing an account, it is not clear whether all the correspondence is downloaded and what other actions are taking place. To protect yourself from account theft, turn on two-factor authentication in the messenger and do not follow suspicious links, the department advises.

How to install two-factor authentication in Telegram: 1. Go to Settings → Privacy. 2. Select the section Two-step authentication and enable it. 3. Enter a password that will additionally protect your account. 4. Click Finish.

The Ministry of Digital Development also gives recommendations to those who have already clicked on the malicious link and sent the code: you need to go to Settings → Active sessions and click the End all other sessions link, and then enable two-factor authentication.

On June 19, 2022, a Premium subscription became available in the Telegram messenger. According to the developers, this option "will continue to develop and improve Telegram so that it remains free, independent and user-oriented."^[13]

Russia has learned to de-anonymize channel administrators in Telegram

In November 2022, it became known that law enforcement agencies in Russia have learned to de-anonymize channel administrators on Telegram. The corresponding methodological manual for employees of the Investigative Committee was developed at the Moscow Academy of the Investigative Committee.

The Investigative Committee has developed a number of methods that allow you to receive significant information from various messengers. These methods are intended exclusively for investigators and criminologists, the press service of the RF IC told Vedomosti, adding that messengers can be used by attackers to commit crimes.

According to the newspaper's sources, the methodology explains how to find the owner of an anonymous Telegram channel if there is no information about it in the description or a chatbot, email or Jabber of any of the administrators is left for feedback.

The manual also describes the methodology for collecting and analyzing data in the public domain. For example, experts look at the history of the channel, archival messages and try to calculate grids, that is, a number of communities created by one group of people to promote materials. And in one of the abandoned communities, the username of the owner can be found - and then the entire group of administrators is found along the chain.

Many attackers use Telegram because of the myth about the anonymity of users and channel administrators. For the same reason, a lot of insider information and compromising evidence on famous people and companies began to appear in the messenger.

Businessmen and politicians who have published registered articles with the possibility of paid removal are rare, but they are ready to pay a lot, "said Yevgeny Antipov, creator of Eye of God (a Russian platform specializing in providing information security solutions and services[14]

Sberbank asked employees to remove Telegram from work computers

At the end of August 2022, it became known that Sberbank employees were being asked to remove the Telegram messenger from their work computers. Instead, the bank proposes to use the Sberbank corporate messenger. Read more here.

A service has been launched in Russia that finds Telegram users by IP address

In mid-August 2022, it became known about the creation of a service in Russia that finds Telegram users by IP address. This is a joint project of Internet Search and T.Hunter. More details here

Telegram will not be closed

While Telegram is politically neutral, they will not touch it. This became known on March 13, 2022 from the words of Oleg Matveychev, deputy chairman of the committee on information policy, information technology and communications.

The founder of the Telegram messenger Pavel Durov found a compromise with the FSB, and the platform will not be blocked after other social networks.

The parties managed to agree that people's lives are important, because terrorists are talking through Telegram.

Telegram has installed equipment to track dangerous subjects, and responds to requests as part of operational measures.

The State Duma deputy stressed that Telegram "is just a platform with various bloggers." It has no censorship or manipulation of information like Facebook and Instagram. Of course, everything will change if Telegram allows the publication of calls for the murder of Russians.

Earlier, Pavel Durov urged users from Russia and Ukraine to doubt any data that is being distributed in Telegram at this time. He is against Telegram being used as a tool to exacerbate conflicts and incite ethnic hatred.

On April 16, 2018, Roskomnadzor began blocking access to Telegram on the territory of the Russian Federation. However, almost all day the messenger continued to work without proxy servers and VPN services. In order to bypass the blocking, the Telegram team used a well-known scheme in which the blocking by IP addresses used by Roskomnadzor becomes useless.

In June 2020, Roskomnadzor unblocked Telegram. As Durov assured, there will be no changes in terms of the safety of personal data - the right to privacy and privacy of personal correspondence will remain the fundamental principle of Telegram in all countries^[15].

2021

Disabling advertising on Telegram, but only for officials and government agencies

On November 24, 2021, it became known that Pavel Durov he promised to turn off advertizing Telegram on channels belonging to Russian officials and various. He to state agencies stated this after, for example, resources about began to be advertised on the FSIN channel. cryptocurrencies Earlier, Durov promised never to run advertising on Telegram, but he could not keep this word. The advertising platform started working messenger in test mode in November 2021.

Channels run by private companies or ordinary users were not among the "favorites." What prompted Durov to disconnect the channels of officials and government agencies from the advertising platform remains a mystery.

Durov's advertising platform in the version that was launched in November 2021 did not always distinguish "state" channels from ordinary ones. This manifested itself in the publication of advertising posts, either in no way, or very indirectly related to the topic of the channels.

The list of conditions for advertising in Telegram includes the mandatory availability of free 2 million euros (169 million rubles at the Central Bank exchange rate as of November 24, 2021). Exactly so much is the minimum budget for an advertising campaign in this messenger. The advertising post cannot be longer than 160 characters, and it will be published only on channels with an audience exceeding 1000 people^[16].

Integration with Talantix

• the Cloudy CRM recruitment system Talantix (part of the HR ecosystem) hh.ru has expanded the opportunities for HR teams to communicate with candidates within the service. Viber WhatsApp Telegram has been added to the existing integrations - from and. HeadHunter announced this on November 22, 2021. More. here

Blackmail of Russians using data collected by Telegram bots

In early March 2021, it became known that fraudsters Russia in began to use, personal data collected - Telegramboats to blackmail users.

As the head of the information security department of "SearchInform" Aleksei Drozd told Kommersant, one of the sources of information for fraudsters was the MailSearchBot service of LeakCheck, which was originally created to check the "leaked" passwords.

This bot for a fee invites the user to find their logins and passwords by phone number, which were in the public domain. Fraudsters use this data to blackmail users by email, explains Drozd.

Victims are invited to pay so that their data is not disclosed to friends, relatives or colleagues, he said.

In addition, criminals can also introduce themselves as the service security service and after changing the compromised password, they can eventually get full access to the account, said Igor Bederov, founder of Internet Search.

In his opinion, in 2021 the scale of such fraud will increase. He believes that attackers can start extorting money from companies under the pretext of violating new laws. One of the reasons may be a ban on collecting data on people without their direct consent. Igor Bederov claims that business can start sending letters with fake fines.

Services use data that is already in the public domain, so the principle of their operation can be compared with a search engine, says Alexander Dvoryansky, director of strategic communications at Infosecurity a Softline Company. He stressed that if you use the same password for several years, the user risks becoming a victim of intruders.^[17]

2020

TalkBank Express Checkout Availability

On August 10, 2020, TalkBank announced the launch of an instant transfer service by phone number in instant messengers.

According to the company, the TalkBank fast payment system for August 2020 is available to users of five messengers: WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber, Vkontakte, Facebook. You can even make translations using Alice's voice assistant. Read more here.

Unblocking Telegram will not affect the safety of personal data

On June 19, 2020, it became known that the creator of Telegram Pavel Durov commented on the removal by Roskomnadzor of restrictions on access to the messenger. As Durov assured, the stability and speed of Telegram mobile applications in Russia will increase, and direct web links to channels and services will become available without VPN. In terms of the safety of personal data, there will be no changes - the right to privacy and privacy of personal correspondence will remain a fundamental principle of Telegram in all countries.

I think that unlocking will be a good signal for IT entrepreneurs and investors. Such actions of the Russian authorities in this and other areas inspire optimism. I hope that the positive trend will be preserved, and Russia will be able to realize its potential in the digital sphere, - said Durov.

Roskomnadzor lifted the requirements to restrict access to the Telegram messenger in agreement with the General Prosecutor's Office. Attempts to block the messenger have been carried out for more than two years, but Russian users bypassed the blocking without any problems.

In April 2018, the Tagansky District Court Moscow satisfied the claim of Roskomnadzor to block Telegram on the territory. RUSSIAN FEDERATION On April 4, the 15-day deadline provided to the Telegram administration for the transfer of keys expired. enciphering FSB According to representatives of the service operator, this requirement could not be fulfilled for technical reasons.

In May 2020, State Duma deputies from "Fair Russia" Fedot Tumusov and Dmitry Ionin proposed a bill to stop blocking Telegram. According to the authors, unsuccessful attempts to block the messenger did not damage its development, but the prestige of the state power of the Russian Federation^[18].

Roskomnadzor will unblock Telegram

Roskomnadzor on June 18, 2020 announced the unblocking of Telegram. A message about this appeared on the regulator's website. The supervisory authority explained this by the fact that the Telegram leadership expressed its readiness to counter terrorism and extremism

"In agreement with the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, Roskomnadzor removes the requirements for restricting access to the Telegram messenger. We are ready to interact with all Internet companies operating in the country to promptly suppress the spread of terrorist and extremist information, child pornography, propaganda of suicide and drugs, "Roskomnadzor.

Durov recalled that the messenger was blocked "under the auspices of the fight against terrorism."

"Although we did not have sympathy for terrorists even then, we have since come a long way to overcome these threats. During this time, methods of detecting and removing extremist propaganda have been improved, and now the Telegram team is stopping tens of thousands of attempts to spread public calls for violence and terror every month, "he wrote.

According to him, the mechanisms created to prevent terrorist attacks do not violate the secrecy of user correspondence and the company's experience in dozens of countries has shown that "the fight against terrorism and the right to privacy of personal correspondence do not exclude each other."

Recall that according to Russian legislation, Telegram is obliged by the FSB to provide encryption keys to the correspondence of all users.

The Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications did not support the initiative of the deputies to unblock Telegram

The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation did not support the initiative of the Just Russia deputies to unblock the Telegram messenger during a period of high alert, Interfax reports.

"The amendment proposed by the bill to Article 15.4 of Federal Law No. 149-FZ, if adopted, may entail abuse of the right by dishonest organizers of the dissemination of information on the Internet, who will deliberately disseminate information about the activities of state and local authorities in order to avoid persecution," the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications said in its recall.

As explained in the department, the terms used in the bill, such as "official service," have no disclosure in the text and are not subject to use, and the wording "current situation" is doubtful and has an expansive interpretation.

The State Duma has prepared a bill to stop blocking Telegram

Deputies of the State Duma from "Fair Russia" proposed a bill to stop blocking the Telegram messenger. This was reported by the Kommersant edition, which had at its disposal the corresponding document^[19].

According to the information provided by the source, the draft bill on Tuesday, April 21, was sent to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, as well as to Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation. The department confirmed the receipt of the document, but refrained from any comments.

According to the initiators of the bill, Telegram, despite the blocking, is widely used by many government services, including the operational headquarters of the governments of Moscow and the Moscow region to inform about the current situation with the coronavirus. In addition, in most cases, the messenger functions without problems in Runet and enjoys well-deserved popularity among Russian users. All this casts doubt on the feasibility of blocking Telegram.

"Further declarative blocking of the messenger, thus, damages not its development, but the prestige of the state power of the Russian Federation," the authors of the bill note, expressing confidence that their proposal will receive wide support from State Duma deputies. However, according to experts interviewed by Kommersant, the likelihood of such a development of events is close to zero, and the prospects for adopting an initiative in parliament are extremely vague.

Yandex.Money launched transfers through Telegram

On March 16, 2020, it became known that Telegram users were able to send money transfers to other people through Yandex.Money. The messenger now recognizes the card number among the text of the message. Read more here.

2019

The head of Roskomnadzor Zharov began to use Telegram

At the end of December 2019, it became known that Alexander Zharov began to use Telegram. As you know, it was Roskomnadzor, which he heads, who initiated the blocking of the messenger. Read more here.

Roskomnadzor distributed Telegram blocking equipment to operators

In mid-September 2019, it became known that Roskomnadzor distributed equipment to telecommunications operators to block Telegram and other Internet resources prohibited in Russia. Two sources in the telecom told Reuters about this.

According to one of them, testing will take place in Tyumen on real users. According to the results of the tests, which will last until the end of September 2019, it is planned to understand how the devices work, what failures there are, etc.

The new blocking equipment was produced by "РДП.ру." 15% of this company belongs to Rostelecom. In March 2019, it was reported that the RDP.RU 's decision to block prohibited resources was recognized as the most effective during a laboratory experiment.

Representatives of telecom operators declined to comment. Roskomnadzor did not respond to the agency's request. The "РДП.ру" said that they do not know where the testing is taking place.

Earlier in 2019, the head of Roskomnadzor, Alexander Zharov , in an interview with RIA Novosti, said that Roskomnadzor was working on new tools to completely block Telegram. He noted that he would be able to name the cost and characteristics of the equipment in October.

By September 2019, the messenger is still available to users, despite the fact that Roskomnadzor blocks Telegram by court order due to the messenger's refusal to transfer  encryption keys to the FSB.

On November 1, 2019, a law on "ensuring the safe and sustainable functioning" of the Internet in Russia will enter into force. The law obliges operators to establish technical means on their networks that will limit access   to resources prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation.  These include the DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) traffic filtering system. Testing of equipment for blocking resources in Tyumen will probably take place within the framework of this law.^[20]

2018

Roskomnadzor is ready to unblock Telegram with the consent of the FSB

Representatives of Roskomnadzor announced at the end of August their readiness to unblock Telegram if the Federal Security Service recognizes the changes made to the privacy policy by fulfilling the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation. This was reported by the TASS news agency.

"According to

the decision of the Tagansky District Court of Moscow of April 13, 2018, restriction of access on the territory of Russia to Internet resources, the functioning of which is provided by Telegram Messenger Limited Partnership, is carried out before the specified organizer of information distribution on the Internet fulfills the obligation to submit to the federal executive body in the field of information security, necessary to decode received, transmitted, delivered and (or) processed electronic messages, "the press service of the ILV explained

.

Thus, the decision to comply with the requirements of the legislation will be made by the FSB. If there is a positive decision, Roskomnadzor is ready to start unblocking, the department noted.

ILV asked to change the Telegram code to obtain encryption keys

Before the start of blocking Telegram in Russia, the FSB and Roskomnadzor tried for a year to convince the leadership of Telegram to change the architecture of the messenger and provide keys for decrypting user correspondence. According to the departments, the company has a technical opportunity for this. This was announced in June 2018 by a representative of Roskomnadzor during the consideration of the complaint of Telegram representatives against the decision of the Tagansky District Court to block the service in Russia.

"The FSB and Roskomnadzor have been trying for a year to encourage Telegram to change the architecture of the messenger. We believe that the structure of any messenger can be changed to be brought in accordance with Russian law. Therefore, we believe that Telegram has the technical ability to provide keys for decryption, "the TASS representative of the supervisory service quotes a statement.

Putin spoke out against blocking Telegram

At the annual Direct Line with, Vladimir Putin the President, Russia answering questions from viewers, commented on the situation as a result of attempts to Roskomnadzor block the Telegram messenger^[21]

'I'm very aware of the situation around the Telegram. But I am worried about the safety of people in my place. I myself worked in the special services and I know: it is easiest to ban, it is harder to find civilized solutions. I will convince my colleagues to follow this path, "the president said.

The same, according to him, applies to the possibility of banning YouTube and Instagram in Russia. Putin said that Russia is not going to close popular social networks and Internet resources. In his opinion, law enforcement officers should look for such ways to combat terrorism that will not be to the detriment of freedom on the Internet. He intends to encourage the security forces not to restrict this freedom. The president proposes to practice the use of various tools, not blocking them.

Roskomnadzor demanded that Apple remove Telegram from the AppStore

Roskomnadzor sent a letter to Apple demanding to stop distributing the Telegram messenger through the App Store, as well as sending its service push notifications to Russian users.

"In order to avoid possible actions of Roskomnadzor to disrupt the functioning of the above services, Apple, Inc. please inform us as soon as possible about the Company's further actions aimed at resolving these problematic issues," the letter says (spelling and punctuation preserved).

The head of the department, Alexander Zharov, added that Roskomnadzor will wait for a response from Apple "within a month," since we are talking about "a company with a high degree of bureaucracy," Interfax reports.

Roskomnadzor armed itself against Telegram with new technologies

The head of Roskomnadzor Alexander Zharov promised to continue to introduce new technical solutions to block Telegram in Russia. As Zharov told Interfax reporters on the sidelines of SPIEF 2018, the department already has certain technical solutions at its disposal, ready for implementation^[22].

What kind of decisions are in question, the head of Roskomnadzor did not specify, but the regulator will no longer block the subnets of any companies. Now Roskomnadzor "works pointwise" without harm to "respectable resources."

According to Zharov, a number of companies have already taken appropriate steps to deprive Telegram of the opportunity to bypass the blocking. For example, Microsoft it no longer provides the messenger with the ability to use the configuration file of its Microsoft Download service. Telegram has stopped providing its IP addresses. Google In addition, a dialogue continues on Telegram. Amazon Negotiations with the company are not going as quickly as we would like, and it is too early to talk about the results, but "we are patient people," Zharov said.

During the hunt for Telegram, the ILV blocked 19 million IP addresses, in the hours of Google, Amazon, Microsoft

Main article [[Censorship (control) on the Internet. Russian Experience]

According to the head of Diphost, at the moment, in connection with the blocking of Telegram, about 18 million IP addresses are included in the register. In particular, address pools belonging to cloud services Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others were blocked.

Roskomnadzor blocked subnets OVH, Hetzner, Online.net, Microsoft, etc.:

• 18.236.0.0/15 - Amazon.com, Inc.
• 54.64.0.0/13 - Amazon Technologies Inc.
• 23.251.128.0/19 - Google LLC
• 174.138.0.0/17 - DigitalOcean, LLC
• 188.166.0.0/17 - Digital Ocean, Inc.
• 159.203.0.0/16 - DigitalOcean, LLC
• 128.199.0.0/16 - DigitalOcean Cloud
• 159.65.0.0/16 - DigitalOcean, LLC
• 52.32.0.0/16 - Amazon Technologies Inc.
• 54.212.0.0/15 - Amazon.com, Inc.
• 18.218.0.0/16 - Amazon Technologies Inc.
• 13.230.0.0/15 - Amazon Data Services Japan
• 35.176.0.0/15 - Amazon Data Services UK
• 195.154.0.0/17 - Iliad Entreprises Customers
• 51.136.0.0/15 - Microsoft Limited UK
• 46.101.128.0/17 - Digital Ocean, Inc.
• 185.166.212.0/23 - Clouding.io Virtual Machine Hosting
• 178.63.0.0/16 - Hetzner Online GmbH
• 51.15.0.0/16 - Online.net Dedicated Servers NL
• 91.121.0.0/16 - OVH SAS
• 18.204.0.0/14 - Amazon Technologies Inc.

On April 21-22, Roskomnadzor blocked several IP addresses, Google follows from an unofficial copy of the registry upload, which Roskomnadzor transfers to telecom operators to block sites. Access is restricted to IP addresses 74.125.131.101 and 64.233.165.106. According to the ipinfo.io service, they belong to Google. According to the general director of the Diphost provider Philip Kulin, about 60 IP addresses of the site are blocked in total google.com. A malfunction of the Google search engine on April 22 is observed in several cities of Russia, according to data from the Downdetector service, which tracks the work of popular Internet resources. Problems in the work of the search engine began at about one in the morning on. To Moscow The search engine site did not open in 69% of users, another 30% reported that they could not log into their accounts.

By noon on April 17, in the unloading of the blacklist Roskomnadzor that controls the blocking of resources with illegal content by telecom operators, the number of blocked IP addresses exceeded 4,500,000. Of these, a million are blocked subnets of the company (Amazon 52.58.0.0/15, 18.196.0.0/15, 18.194.0.0/15 and 35.156.0.0/14 were entered into the registry simultaneously, later subnets 18.184.0.0/15 and 54.160.0.0/12 were additionally entered into the registry) providing cloud service, and AWS more than one and a half million - companies Google and holdings (Alphabet subnets 35.192.0.0/12 and 35.184.0.0/13, a little later - 35.224.0.0/12).

In one day on April 16, 2018, Roskomnadzor blocked in Russia about 0.04% of all IP addresses of the IPv4 space (a total of 2³² addresses). For the second - the same amount.

As a result of these actions, in less than two days from the beginning of Telegram blocking, such large companies as Microsoft (Xbox), including pages with an officially distributed ON company (http://software-download.microsoft.com/), Evernote a popular and compliant enciphering messenger with key transfer legislation, Viber SkyEng English school, "Bird" courier delivery service, payment service Cloudpayments and numerous proxies - and - and VPNservers services. It was also reported about failures in the work of banks from the top 20, private clinics, gateways. 3-D Secure

According to the head of the supervisory authority, Alexander Zharov, "there is a struggle between armor and shell," which has led to the inaccessibility of not only communication providers and hosting services, but also legitimate services and products of numerous companies, both Russian and foreign.

Qrator Labs notifies you about the need to monitor the state of your own services and the possible ingress of used IP addresses into blocked subnets - there is no technical solution to this problem, except for changing the used IP address. In the situation of further blocking of subnets of large providers, the problem can trigger the'domino effect' and affect services indirectly related to blocked subnets. If subnets such as GitHub, GitLab, DigitalOcean and many others get blocked, the infrastructure of open-source modules, applications and extensions used by developers when creating their own systems and applications will be disrupted.

Telegram bypassed blocking in Russia in a new way that cannot be banned

Initially, Telegram bypassed Telegram blocking Russia using the company's IP addresses, Amazon but Roskomnadzor blocked more than half a million of them in advance in order to prevent the service from working for the sake of fulfilling Russian legislation. Nevertheless, the administration of the messenger found a way out of this situation. Now it is simply useless to block individual IP addresses, because the service will continue to work^[23]

The Telegram application for all platforms has a built-in service push DC_Update, which is used to update the address of the data center with which communication is carried out. At normal times, it is used to increase stability and speed up the sending/receiving of messages, but it can also be used to bypass locks, which the messenger administration decided to do. Previously, no one has ever used this method.

The push system DC_Update works so that the request does not come from the Telegram server, which is blocked in Russia, but with the server of Apple, Google and Microsoft. Every time the push is updated, and this happens constantly, the application can secretly receive the addresses of the new messenger servers from everyone. To block this workaround, Roskomnadzor will have to block tens of millions of IP addresses, which will lead to complete isolation of the entire Russian Internet from the world.

Even if suddenly, by some miracle, Roskomnadzor will be able to find out the IP addresses accessed by Google, Apple and Microsoft using DC_Update, then it will still not block them, because in this case all third-party applications, including WhatsApp, Viber and others, will stop working correctly. The web version of the Telegram messenger does not use this push due to restrictions, so it will remain blocked forever.

Court rules to immediately block Telegram in Russia

The Tagansky District Court of Moscow decided to restrict access to the Telegram service in Russia. This was stated by judge Yulia Smolina, RBC correspondent reports from the meeting^[24] in^[25].

The court also granted the petition of Roskomnadzor for the immediate entry into force of the decision to block the messenger. Now Roskomnadzor must send a court decision to telecom operators indicating the need to take measures to restrict access to the service. The domain names of telegram.org, web.telegram.org, t.me and IP addresses of Telegram servers can be entered in the registry of blocked pages. After that, providers will have to restrict access to messenger resources within 24 hours from the moment the registry is updated (updated daily at 09:00 and 21:00 Moscow time).

Businessman and programmer Pavel Durov has published detailed instructions for Telegram users on how to continue to stay in touch in the popular application. According to him, the messenger will use built-in methods for bypassing locks that do not require actions from users, but it does not guarantee the availability of the service without using a VPN.

The Tagansky Court of Moscow ruled to block Telegram on the territory of the Russian Federation. What users should keep in mind:

• Telegram will use built-in methods to bypass locks that do not require action from users, but 100% availability of the service without VPN is not guaranteed.
• In the first hours of blocking, third-party VPN/Proxy services can be overloaded and are likely to work slowly.
• Regardless of the blocking, Telegram will retain the ability to centrally send notifications to all Russian users, informing about the development of the situation.

Important: Do not uninstall or reinstall Telegram when there are communication problems. Try to download Telegram updates in a timely manner in the AppStore or Google Play.

2017: Due to the threat of blocking, Telegram has become the fastest growing messenger

From May to December 2017, user interest in the Telegram messenger showed the highest growth compared to other similar services popular in Russia, according to the research company ​SimilarWeb, prepared at the request of RBC^[26] to the ^[27] of ^[28].

If in May Telegram from Google Play (for the nine months of 2017, the share of Android in the smartphone segment in Russia was 88%) was downloaded 833.2 thousand times, then in November more than 1.682 million installations were recorded: from May 1 to December 1, the increase in the number of downloads amounted to 168%. The share of active messenger users has almost doubled during this period (considered as the share of application users per day of the total number of all users of devices running on the Android operating system in Russia) - from 3.17 to 5.51%, which made it possible to overtake, for example, Skype (3.9% in November).

For comparison, WhatsApp, the most popular communication application in Russia, was downloaded 2.7 million times in May, and 3.8 million in November (the active audience during the same time increased from 29.97 to 33.27%).

The increased popularity of Telegram in recent months in Russia is also confirmed by the App Annie ratings for downloads. From October to December 2017, Telegram was among the top 3 apps for communication in both the App Store and Google Play, and in June and November it was at the top of the downloads among all App Store apps. ​==

Notes