“Which one of them is Secure and Better?”
The evolution of the chatting service has been huge over the past years. There are tons of apps available for us to chat, share media, including voice and video calls. These apps make our lives a lot easier and everyone around us uses these apps on a regular basis . Most of these apps are free to download from the Appstore/ Playstore whereas a few of them are paid apps.
These apps differ in many ways such as the UI, features, Updates, Security etc.
The advantage of these applications is that they can be used in any device like mobile phones, tablets and also desktop versions of them are available. Some of the most common cross platform messaging apps are Whatsapp, Telegram, Signal, Viber, Line, Wechat, Wire etc.
Below we will look into the features and security offered by the messaging apps Whatsapp and Telegram.
WhatsApp Messenger, commonly known as WhatsApp by the masses,was found by Jan Koum and Brian Acton and was released on 3rd May 2009 and was acquired by Facebook in February 2014 for $19 billion selling for a record price at the start of the tech acquisition war..
WhatsApp allows its users to exchange messages, VoIP services, share media, user location, documents etc. One of the biggest advantages of Whatsapp is that it is used by around 1.5 Billion people around the world which makes it easy to stay connected with friends and family.
Whatsapp is available in ios, Android, selected phones running kali linux and also desktop versions
WhatsApp Features:
WhatsApp has a lot of features which makes it one of the most commonly used chatting platforms across the globe. It has one of the best UI when compared to the other chatting services app available today. Some of the features that whatsApp provides are as follows;
- Simple and Reliable texting
- Groups that can hold upto 256 members
- WhatsApp encrypted voice and video call
- Default security features for securely sharing messages, media etc.
- Whatsapp Web and Desktop versions
- Voice messages
- File sharing upto 16Mb
All these features are available by default in the application and users don’t have to pay for the application and it is very easy for an user to use as it is very customer friendly and simple and all the settings are set default to make the life of the user easier.
WhatsApp Security:
Be it any application service, one thing that is a must is the security that the application provides. With millions of people sending millions of messages on a daily basis, security plays a vital role in safeguarding the data and providing the best security possible for its customers is a necessity.
Whatsapp provides end-to-end encryption for the messages so that only the sender and the receiver can read the messages and anyone in between cannot read it including whatsapp. WhatsApp also states that for every message a user sends, there is a unique lock and key and all these take place automatically.
The WhatsApp encryption is based on the Signal Protocol (the one used by Signal chatting platform!). WhatsApp claims that it does not store any messages on its servers after they have been delivered, but they are retained for up to 30 days If a message cannot be delivered immediately (for example, if you are offline).
The disadvantage of WhatsApp is that its reputation is in question, with respect to data privacy where a lot of people have the doubt if their data is safe or if it is open out there on the internet.
Telegram
Telegram is also a cross platform messaging platform similar to whatsapp and many other applications available in today’s world. Telegram is available in iOS, Android, Windows Phone, macOS and Linux (32- and 64-bit variants) and it also has a desktop version available. Telegram is used by around 300 million users worldwide.
Telegram was founded by Pavel Valerievich Durov and released on 14th August 2013.
Telegram Features
Telegram offers a lot of features to its customers. Some of them are ;
- Simple and Reliable texting
- Groups that can hold upto 200,000 members(THAT’S A LOTTT OF MEMBERS!!)
- Secret chats for those who want privacy
- High level security
- Voice and video calls
- Desktop versions
- Public and Private Channels
- File sharing upto 1.5Gb
Telegram Security
Telegram uses the MTproto encryption and claims to be much more secure than the famous chatting applications like WhatsApp. It uses SHA-256(Hashing Algorithm) instead of SHA-1; Also Padding bytes are involved in the computation of msg_key; msg_key depends not only on the message to be encrypted, but on a portion of auth_key as well.
Telegram offers end to end encryption for its Secret chats meaning that only the sender and the receiver can view the messages and no one in the middle can view the message or anything the two share.
Telegram offers an extra layer of security for Secret chats. Secret chats can only be read on the device from which the message was sent, and the device that received it. Even using the same accounts, it is not possible to read the messages on any other devices.
Telegram also claims that no person will be able to break their encryption and offers $300,000 to the first person who breaks Telegram encryption. Telegram also protects from Replay and Man in the middle attacks from happening.That means an attacker will not be able to interfere in between a communication and steal information.
While both of the Chatting services have their own advantages and disadvantages, it entirely is up to the user’s preference to choose an application based on their expectations. Both of these applications are popular and used by millions of people globally and both WhatsApp and Telegram provide the best service to their maximum potential.
If your system is compromised or if you would like to be prepared you can contact us at info@rootfloe.com for a free consultation.
Shivashankar is a Business Associate at Rootfloe and has a masters degree in Cyber security from Royal Holloway University of London.
https://www.rootfloe.com
Business Associate
