Though she initially only saw half a photo and three numbers in their user name, it eventually lead to a positive ID via their Minecraft and Instagram account.Īre you interested to see how External Threat Intelligence can help you reduce threats to your organisation? Read our ETI page here.Telegram won’t show messages for a number of different reasons. In the video, Rosa talks us through the process of how she was able to identify a Telegram user in a chat used for dealing weapons. If you know where to look, there is more to be found than you might think. Alone, these snippets might not say much, but one piece of the puzzle might contain a clue to the next. So how does Rosa navigate this maze to track down people on Telegram? She gathers small pieces of publicly available information called Open Source INTelligence (OSINT). What's more, there are strict privacy laws to adhere by, meaning the police can't simply bait people into something illegal. That makes it harder for law enforcement to track down illegal activity and the people behind it.

There is even a feature to completely delete messages after a certain time. The information shared in Telegram is encrypted and only accessible to people in the chat. 'T here is always some sort of trace left behind,' Rosa concludes. However, complete anonymity on the internet doesn't exist. They make use of the feature to hide their phone numbers and don't use their real (account) names.

'You do see that people in groups for illegal merchandise are more conscious about their identity,' Rosa explains. Those features make the app popular among criminals and threat actors, whose ‘business’ runs better with a higher level of anonymity. But Telegram gathers less user data, and offers the option to hide your telephone number and select a random user name. Telegram is used much like Whatsapp is: to chat with a single contact, or in a public group. It is in Dutch, but auto-translated English subtitles are available in the YouTube player. Click the video to watch the full NOS Story special.

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