Subj : Telegram confesses it only employs thirty engineers - and somehow
To   : All
From : TechnologyDaily
Date : Tue Jun 25 2024 13:30:05

Telegram confesses it only employs thirty engineers - and somehow thinks this 
is fine

Date:
Tue, 25 Jun 2024 12:17:46 +0000

Description:
Telegram founder Pavel Duvrov bragged about his company being super 
efficient, but security researchers are despairing.

FULL STORY
======================================================================

The founder of messaging platform and social media network Telegram has 
revealed that the entire company is staffed by just thirty engineers, with no 
human resources (HR) department. 

Pavel Duvrov made the comments (via TechCrunch ) on one of those particularly 
wretched interview podcasts they have now, presumably hoping we'd see his 
posturing against basic things like HR, Legal, and security audits as a good 
thing. 

On the podcast, Durov claimed he was the only product manager at Telegram, 
and boasted he employs only about 30 engineers - but that this was OK as the 
team was "super efficient." Telegram needs staff 

Perhaps unsurpisingly, security experts have reacted to the news negatively, 
with Telegram already notorious for not enabling end-to-end encryption by 
default, having a proprietary algorithm for that, and having servers located 
in the UAE (it being a Dubai-based company). 

However, you dont need to be a great big business brain to know that having 
your only employees be a skeleton crew devoted to maintaining critical 
infrastructure is a terrible idea, particularly if you own Telegram, a 
service known to be no stranger to cybercriminals . 

Speaking to TechCrunch, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)s Director of 
Cybersecurity, Eva Galperin, noted that this would only spur cyberattackers 
on. [...] if I was a threat actor, I would definitely consider this to be 
encouraging news. Every attacker loves a profoundly understaffed and 
overworked opponent. 

Another is that engineers might keep the ship running, but theyre not very 
good at everything else involved with running the business. Thirty engineers 
means that there is no one to fight legal requests, there is no 
infrastructure for dealing with abuse and content moderation issues, Galperin 
continued. 

Obviously were meant to go yes king, eradicate woke, but you do have to 
wonder whether things like lawsuits and subpoenas have ever occurred to 
Duvrov at all, and whether any of his Bootleg Elon Musk performance will come 
back to bite him. 

TechRadar Pro has contacted Telegram for comment. More from TechRadar Pro 
Telegram is now the main place for hackers to buy and sell new threats 
Telegram is now offering business accounts to take on WhatsApp and Facebook 
How to optimize costs and minimize technical debt in a multi-cloud environment



======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/pro/telegram-confesses-it-only-employs-thirty-engine
ers-and-somehow-thinks-this-is-fine


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