Telegram's founder Pavel Durov has tagged WhatsApp as "Dangerous" and full of "backdoors" for the hack of Amazon founder and CEO's phone Jeff Bezos, saying his data wouldn't have been stolen if he had relied on Telegram instead of WhatsApp.
Jeff Bezos iPhone was hacked after he received a video file containing malware via WhatsApp....which is the same way last year when about 1400 select journalists and human rights activists were compromised via WhatsApp using the Pegasus from Israeli NSO Group.
Facebook on its part has blamed Apple's iOS for the hack, saying that WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption is unhackable.
"It sounds like something on the...you know, what they call operate, operated on the phone itself. It can't have been anything, when the message was sent, in transit, because that's end-to-end encrypted on WhatsApp," Facebook's Vice President of Global Affairs and Communication, Nick Clegg told BBC during an interview.
However, Durov disagrees with WhatsApp that the issue was an iOS problem but on all mobile operating systems that had WhatsApp installed.
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"WhatsApp's 'corrupted video' vulnerability was present not only on iOS, but also on Android and even Windows Phone devices. Meaning, on all mobile devices with WhatsApp installed," Durov said in a blog post.
"This security fault was not present in other messaging apps on iOS. Had Jeff Bezos replied on Telegram instead of WhatsApp, he wouldn't have been blackmailed by people who compromised his communications," Durov added.
According to a report from FTI Consulting, a firm that investigated the Bezos' phone hack, said that the Amazon chief's phone began to send unusually large amount of data, including intimate messages with his girl friend after the phone hack incident.
Durov went on to say that backdoors are usually camouflaged as accidental security flaws, with WhatsApp alone accounting for 12 flaws last year alone, and Seven of them critical as the bug that got Jeff Bezos.
"Enforcement agencies are not too happy with encryption, forcing app developers to secretly plant vulnerabilities in their apps," Durov said. But then how did he come to know about this?
"I know that because we've been approached by some of them - and refused to cooperate," Durov said. "As a result, Telegram is banned in some countries where WhatsApp has no issues with authorities, most suspiciously in Russia and Iran."