The Telegram messaging app has recently become a hotbed for cybercriminals around the world. With over 500 million active users, the platform is used to buy and sell illegal data, including leaked passwords, passports, documents, credit card information, and more. This article will be looking at how cybercrime on Telegram has grown in recent years and what you can do to avoid becoming a victim yourself.

For beginners, Telegram is a mobile messaging app that allows users to send messages, photos, and videos in an encrypted manner. In other words, the messages aren’t seen by anyone other than the parties involved. In addition to the end-to-end encryption, the app allows users to activate a self-destructing message feature, which deletes the content after it is viewed or has been on the platform for a certain period of time.

It was developed by Pavel Durov, a Russian tech billionaire best known for founding the Russian version of Facebook called Vkontakte (VK). Launched in 2013, Telegram has gained a large following despite being banned in Russia until last year.

While Telegram provides a relatively safe and secure environment for its users, it has in recent years become a haven for cybercriminals and even terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State. The app is free to download, providing a secure way to communicate without worrying about the messages being intercepted. Because of this feature, Telegram has quickly gained popularity in the world of cybercrime.

It’s not just small cybercrimes that are being carried out on Telegram, but more significant attacks as well. According to an investigation published by the Financial Times (FT) last month, there has been “a 100 percent-plus rise in Telegram usage by cybercriminals” in recent months.

“The number of mentions in Telegram of “Email:pass” and “Combo” — hacker parlance used to indicate that stolen email and passwords lists are being shared — rose fourfold over the past year to nearly 3,400,” wrote the report conducted jointly by the London-based newspaper and Cyberint.

But leaks of email passwords represent only a sliver of all the worrisome activity on Telegram.

“Other types of data traded include financial data such as credit card information, copies of passports and credentials for bank accounts and sites such as Netflix, the research found,” FT reported. Telegram provides a lucrative market for criminals to buy and sell stolen data.

Onsist Deep & Dark Web Monitoring

As a business owner, you may be wondering how this affects you and what you can do to stay safe. At Onsist, we offer a Dark & Deep Web Monitoring service for this very reason. We monitor Telegram channels for data breaches and cybercrime activity, allowing you to keep an eye on your company’s sensitive data at all times.

Contact us today to find out more about how this service can protect you or if you are interested in learning more about cybercrime on Telegram.