
User correspondence has always been the object of interest of various parties. These can be ordinary criminals who try to steal information through instant messengers. There may be competing companies that are playing unfairly in the market and trying to intercept corporate secrets. Of course, the intelligence services of many countries are also interested in reading the correspondence of users. How to secure yourself from such interventions? How to make sure that your correspondence is reliably protected? Let’s find out.
Are There Absolutely Safe Messengers?
Security ratings of instant messengers are compiled and updated constantly and it is difficult to choose the safest one. The leaders of such ratings, as a rule, are Signal, Matrix, Wire, etc. Of course, there are no absolutely secure messengers.
The security of the messenger is influenced by too many factors that the user cannot always control. This is primarily the server, which is usually unavailable to the user, how and by whom this server was configured – users usually do not know the answers, and they will have to trust the company that supports the messenger service. In addition, some messengers completely hide the security protocols of their products, which also does not add confidence in their safety.
How to Secure Your Personal Data in Messengers?
As we have already understood, there are no ideal messengers, however, in almost any messenger now you can do a lot to ensure the safety of correspondence:
- You need to enable end-to-end encryption (it is not always enabled by default). Encryption allows you to protect the transmitted information from unwanted viewing by intruders, and the use of other cryptographic mechanisms – to provide protection against distortion or the possibility of denial of authorship. Then you need to make sure that all updates of both the messenger itself and the operating system (iOS or Android) are installed.
- You need to set up two-factor authentication for your messenger account in order to protect it from theft. It is advisable to disable the storage of backups of your chats in the cloud, as the security of backups is not always properly ensured.
- It is very useful to verify your correspondence keys during a personal meeting with your chatmates. Now, this can be easily done by scanning the corresponding QR code in the messenger application or comparing emoji sequences, as in Telegram.
How to check if the messages are read by anyone? The answer is simple – it is almost impossible! Try to use messengers from companies with a good reputation, improve the security of your messenger to the maximum, enable end-to-end encryption. Besides, we recommend not to send through the messenger the date you would not like to show to any prying eyes (documents, photos, personal life details). So, be careful with the information that you are sharing with other people. This is the best way to protect yourself from scammers.