RUSSIA has unintentionally knocked out its own access to several major cloud services, including Google Search, Gmail and Amazon Web Services 鈥� used by streaming sites Spotify and Twitch 鈥� in ongoing efforts to cut access to secure messaging app Telegram. The app is used by millions of people inside Russia but its encryption has also made it popular with the likes of ISIS. Russian telecoms regulators want the company to hand over its encryption keys but Russian founder and privacy advocate Pavel Durov has refused.
To stay ahead, Telegram is using a trick that lets it hop from one internet address to another. In response, Russia has simply blocked millions of addresses, many of them used by Google, Amazon and others.
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Russia used the same tactic against another messaging app called Zello earlier this year and Google and Amazon are reported to have asked Zello to stop changing addresses. So far this has not happened with Telegram.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淐ollateral damage in Russia鈥檚 web war鈥�
