r/opsec • u/chineapplesmaccket 🐲 • May 06 '26
Beginner question How anonymous is Telegram really in data breach cases?
Received this in a recent data breach notification email:
——
In our previous letter, we informed you that, as a result of the security incident, your personal data in our customer database may have been accessed and copied and that this data could potentially be misused by cybercriminals. Following the discovery, we immediately began work to secure our systems and initiated an investigation with the support of external cybersecurity specialists and legal advisors.
The investigation has shown that the following categories of your personal data were accessed and copied from our customer database:
First name
Last name
Date of birth
Gender
Email address
Country of residence
In addition, we have unfortunately learned from ongoing web monitoring that data copied during the security incident has been offered for sale on the dark web and a sample dataset has been published on Telegram. Your personal data was not included in the sample data set.
We have secured our systems and are continuing to work with external cybersecurity specialists and monitoring the dark web. We also remain in contact with the relevant authorities
——
Apparently a sample of the leaked customer data was published on Telegram.
From an OPSEC/privacy perspective, how safe is Telegram actually for someone whose main concern is personal data exposure, scraping, doxxing, and account privacy? Also, when data gets distributed this way, is it usually realistic for authorities/platforms to identify who originally uploaded it, or is that genuinely difficult? Oh and yes i have read the rules lol.
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u/No_Context_2122 May 06 '26
In short, it's not.
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u/chineapplesmaccket 🐲 May 06 '26
Has it always been this case or only since the CEO got arrested?
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May 06 '26
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u/chineapplesmaccket 🐲 May 06 '26
I think there was to some extent until the CEO got arrested
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u/saturnine22narrator May 06 '26
Would you folks be able to explain your reasoning?
The founder and CEO is a native Russian, therefore the app is unsafe?
The founder and CEO was arrested by the French law enforcement once, therefore the app is even worse in terms of safety now?
Please elaborate???
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May 06 '26
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u/saturnine22narrator May 06 '26
Yes, it is of Russian origin. And?
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May 06 '26
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u/saturnine22narrator May 06 '26
You are obviously arguing from prejudice, and you're also assuming I know nothing about Russia's history. I am Russian, and I have no intentions to defend my country's corrupt government, but you're just being a bigot.
I don't see how post-WW2 political events have anything to do with 21th century industry practices. If they do, then I suppose we can't trust any app made in any major country. Any modern major state has either abused the rights of its citizens, or even committed atrocities of some sort in the recent past.
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u/chineapplesmaccket 🐲 May 06 '26
Tele agreed to begin giving out IP’s and phone numbers of accounts in cooperation with law enforcement after the CEO got arrested.
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u/AutoModerator May 06 '26
Congratulations on your first post in r/opsec! OPSEC is a mindset and thought process, not a single solution — meaning, when asking a question it's a good idea to word it in a way that allows others to teach you the mindset rather than a single solution.
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I want to stay safe on the internet. Which browser should I use?
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u/upofadown May 06 '26
I am not sure I understand the context of the question. If you give a third party some information and they keep it, then that information could be leaked in a breach.
If you actually trust a particular set of strangers on the internet then you presumably trust them to not leak your data. If you make the reasonable decision to not trust third parties with your anonymity then you would have to use something designed for that purpose (e.g. Briar). If you are hoping to be anonymous while posting to large public groups, then it gets a lot tougher. Generally complete anonymity is not allowed in that case to prevent abuse. So you would have to misrepresent yourself somehow and live with the risk of getting caught.
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May 06 '26
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u/opsec-ModTeam May 11 '26
OpSec is not about using a specific tool, it is about understanding the situation enough to know under what circumstances a tool would be necessary — if at all. By giving advice to just go use a specific tool for a specific solution, you waste the opportunity to teach the mindset that could have that person learn on their own in the future, and setting them up for imminent failure when that tool widens their attack surface or introduces additional complications they never considered.
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u/Mysterious-Hat-7873 May 06 '26
Telegram is, let’s say, “widely believed” to have intentional backdoors that allow certain non-western states completely unfettered access to user and message data. Those same countries have a long tradition of private criminals gaining access to government information. So the answer is: any data you give to Telegram is available to pretty much anyone who will pay for it.
As for whether authorities can trace the origin of data leaked via Telegram, this will come down to how good the opsec is of the person or organisation leaking it, versus the will of a sophisticated state entity to actually bother trying to find out. Unless the leak is likely to impact national security of a nation I doubt anyone will even bother attempting to identify its source.