Network Security: Which Messengers People Should and Shouldn’t Trust

LAN MESSENGER

Messengers are so deeply integrated into our daily life that they have become a vital part of them. Modern etiquette instructs us not to call by phone but first clarify in the messenger when and how it is convenient for the person to communicate. In chats, we discuss personal and working issues, spending the lion’s share of time on correspondence.

At the same time, the boundaries of security are becoming more and more transparent: we trust  Windows messengers with tons of information, which can be a commercial secret or deeply personal info. In this article, we’ll talk about how insecure the most popular instant messengers are and why you shouldn’t send confidential information in correspondence.

 

Anti-rating Heroes

Let’s start our review with the most “problematic” messenger that endangers the company’s information security – Skype. At various times, serious flaws were discovered in it, through which it was possible to gain complete remote control over the computer. After the messenger was bought by Microsoft in 2011, a legal wiring technology was introduced. Microsoft’s contractors are now tapping some users’ conversations to improve the built-in translator service.

The second place can be shared by the products of the Facebook concern – FB Messenger and WhatsApp. Even though Facebook is one of the most popular social networks in the world, security issues in the company are almost ignored. The company’s messengers are often at the center of scandals related to the leakage of user personal data. For example, the case of Cambridge Analytica’s collection of data on 87 million Facebook users. 

Finally, the most unsafe is considered WeChat. It is a Chinese product on the messenger market with rich functionality. WeChat collects an incredible amount of data on its servers, and this is just a gift for the state. In China, the app shows users’ data in real-time to the government.

 

Safety Flagships

Among messengers, there are those in which communication is maximally protected by the developer. They include Telegram, Threema, and FaceTime. Telegram uses its own end-to-end encryption protocol when all messages are encrypted on the sender’s gadget and decrypted on the recipient’s one. This technology is only implemented for secret chats, and normal messages can theoretically be intercepted.

Threema is a paid messenger. The company’s server is located in Switzerland and is used for technical support, not data storage. Threema is not linked to a phone number, which makes it much more difficult to identify the person using the messenger. You can register in the messenger anonymously, and messages are encrypted on the user’s devices.

Another reliable messenger is FaceTime. Apple uses end-to-end encryption to protect data during its transfer, so it is pointless to intercept closed packets along the way, as it will be problematic to decrypt them. End-to-end encryption only loses its relevance if your smartphone is stolen.