Data Breach Shows Iranians Use Chat Apps to Spy, Researchers Say

Bob Diachenko, a security researcher in Ukraine, spends part of his days searching the internet for troves of data that aren’t secured properly, in order to patch them up so they aren’t exploited by hackers.

Last month, he came across an unsecured server storing information on 42 million messaging accounts, nearly all from Iran and tied to the chat app Telegram.

There were no immediate clues as to who had obtained the data and placed it on the server. There was only a landing page, all black, with the logo of a white eagle and a message in Farsi. ...