PM's Telegram restored

SHAH ALAM - Instant messaging service Telegram on Tuesday said the personal Telegram account belonging to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob that was earlier hacked has now been restored.

The application informed the matter through a tweet in reply to Ismail Sabri on Twitter.

“For security purposes, it is important to not give the Telegram login code to anyone.

"We also recommend users to set an additional password: Settings - Privacy and Security - Two-Step Verification," @telegram said in the tweet.

On Monday the Ismail Sabri Yaakob said his personal Telegram account had been hacked by irresponsible individuals.

He urged the public to report the matter to the authorities.

Meanwhile, Telegram also suggested that the Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign Ministry provide adequate cybersecurity training to its staff.

According to the instant messaging service, the training should include awareness about phishing attacks.

"This is to prevent the opening of malicious links related to pornography that could potentially result in the account being compromised," it said.

The statement was issued following the Telegram accounts belonging to Ismail Sabri and Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah were reported to have been hacked by irresponsible parties.

Telegram, however, responded that it did not find any evidence of fraud against the two accounts.

In the meantime, the communication network company announced that prize money of US$300,000 will be given to anyone who could crack its encryption.

“Telegram is an open source platform and we welcome anyone to review our source code, protocol and Application Programming Interface (API).

“We are committed to provide all users with an end-to-end encryption platform on the messaging app.

"For any further information, you can visit core.telegram.org/contest300K," he said.