As part of the investigation, I have looked closely at Telegram's protocol and analyzed packet captures provided by IStories.

I have also done some packet captures of my own.

I dive into the nitty-gritty technical details of what I found and how I found it on my blog:

Telegram is indistinguishable from an FSB honeypot
https://rys.io/en/179.html

Yes, my packet captures and a small Python library I wrote in the process are all published along.

#Telegram #InfoSec #Privacy #Surveillance #Russia

Remarkable investigation into Telegram by IStories (in Russian):
https://www.istories.media/stories/2025/06/10/kak-telegram-svyazan-s-fsb/

English version by OCCRP:
http://www.occrp.org/en/investigation/telegram-the-fsb-and-the-man-in-the-middle

tl;dr:

👉 Telegram uses a single company with ties to the Russian FSB as their sole infrastructure provider, globally.

👉 Combined with a cleartext device identifier Telegram's protocol requires to be prepended to all encrypted messages, this allows for global surveillance of Telegram users.

I am quoted in this story.

#Telegram #InfoSec #Privacy

Hey @simplex is this really your founder? 👀
https://xcancel.com/epoberezkin

#SimpleX #InfoSec