Telegram is removed from the list of secure messagers from NATO for 2018. The license rnd by 15. Jan. 2019. Because: 01. Feb. 2019 Telegram has a new ownership a Russian Technology Company who serves the FSB and the Russian Military too.

We „The board and all Sgt. at Arms“ leave Telegram and use from the 14.  Jan 2019 a Swiss messanger company „Wire“ available for iOS and Android etc. We test it in the last days and month Wire and we can say it’s great and has a lots of new feathers and options. We will remove step-by-step all telegram groups and channels.

For a free of charge download for the app: https://wire.com/en/download/

What is Wire?

Wire is the newcomer among encrypted messengers – it has only been available since 2014. The operator is Wire Swiss GmbH. The motto of Wire: Just as stylish as WhatsApp, but at the same time as private as Signal. Wire is available for Android, iOS and the desktop of Windows Apple and Linux computers.

Of the three founders, two are part of the Skype founding team. The money for the development comes from venture capitalists. Since October 2017, an extended, paid version for the business sector is available, through which the company finances itself.

The messenger is programmed in Berlin, but the company is headquartered in Switzerland and thus falls under federal data protection law. According to own data the free app was downloaded about five million times (as of August 2018).

Encrypted by default, many extras

Wire encrypts chats, telephony and video telephony by default end-to-end. In addition, there are many nice extras, such as the possibility to paint photos before sending, to draw pictures, to edit audio recordings with filters or to send the own location.

Even teleconferencing with up to ten people should be feasible, including screen sharing, for example, to show presentations. Especially convenient: Messages can be expirated and deleted separately. Since April 2018, web-linkers can also be added to discussions who have not installed the Wire-App itself.

Advantages and disadvantages of Wire

Positive:

• Standard end-to-end encryption for chats, group chats, video and audio telephony
• Desktop version
• Usable without phone number
• Does not require access to contacts
• Saves a few metadata
• Usable without a Google Account
• Auto-destruction timer for messages and subsequent deletion
• Encrypted local backup (iOS only)
• Open source code

negative

• Local backup not encrypted (Android only)
• Private and safe

The program code of the Wire-App is open to everyone (open source). In addition, Wire has had its products inspected twice by independent experts from Kudelski Security and X41 D-Sec. The results of both safety audits were positive.

When setting up, Wire asks if the address book should be reconciled to find contacts with Wire’s account. If one agrees, they are anonymized (hashed) loaded on wires server and adjusted there. Wire assures not to link this data to reconstruct relationship networks.

You can also manually search and add contacts using the wire username or wire username (@Name). For the use no telephone number is necessary. You can also sign up with an e-mail address at Wire.

By default, Wire uses Google Play services, like most other messengers. Unlike in some places, there is currently no wire version that does not contain any elements of Google. The app has a “fallback mechanism”. That is, if it’s running on a device that does not have Google services available, it will still work.

For this reason, it is not available in the F-Droid Store, which only allows apps that do not contain any proprietary elements. You can load the app as an .apk file from the Wire website.

Wire captures very few metadata and stores chats on its own servers for a maximum of 30 days. Log data of calls, that is, who is calling whom and when, are not recorded.