Social media has long been a great way to keep up to date with breaking news and the latest innovations in special interest areas, and this is especially true in cybersecurity. While you’ll find Twitter a great resource, there are other platforms, from the giants like Facebook, Reddit and LinkedIn to the comparatively niche such as Discord, Slack and Telegram, where you can also find special interest pages, channels, and groups dedicated to the latest in cyber-related events.
Telegram in particular has seen a lot of rapid growth recently in light of media attention focusing on data sharing between rival messaging platform WhatsApp and WhatsApp’s parent company Facebook. If you are one of those that has recently chosen to leap onto Telegram for this or some other reason, or you’re already a Telegram user but haven’t thought about how it can help you keep up with your cybersecurity interests, then this is the post for you.
Below, we highlight ten of the most useful cybersecurity groups we follow on Telegram. Whether you’re interested in penetration testing, red teaming, blue teaming, malware research, reverse engineering, bug hunting, vulnerability research, network security or anything else to do with cyber or enterprise security, if you’ve been wondering what are some good channels to join on Telegram for cybersecurity, these ten groups should help ensure you never miss a thing.
1. Cyber Security News (30k+ members)
Cyber Security News is a feed channel for links to breaking news stories across the internet, everything from TechCrunch and the Washington Post to Portswigger and Security Boulevard. In other words, it’s a one-stop shop for cyber-related news that should be your first port of call along with your morning coffee.
2. Cyber Security Experts (23k+ members)
Cyber Security Experts is a great channel for exchanging information about cyber, IT, and security. This channel was set up for security professionals that want to contribute to the wider security community, get answers to questions directly from security experts and leaders from across the world and help other security experts to enhance their security maturity.
However, as can be seen from our screen capture above, new users are wont to get into hot water if they don’t read the rules! These are conveniently (and obviously) pinned at the top, and yet some folks still seemingly miss them! If you want to join this group and benefit from getting involved in the chat, remember:
🚨Important rules 🚨
- No illegal stuff (links, offers etc)
- No advertisement (zero tolerance)
- No links to other Telegram channels
- No racism, bad language or destructive behavior
- Be kind and help others. Don’t just consume, and ask if you have a question!
3. Cloud & Cybersecurity (~12k members)
Cloud and Cybersecurity is a unique group that we feel far more people in Infosec would benefit from being a member of. This channel offers career advice, daily quizzes, tips and useful resources that can provide real material benefit and learning no matter what level you’re currently at. If you’re looking to improve on what you know and develop your career (and who isn’t?), then this is a great channel to join.
4. Cybersecurity & Privacy News (~8k members)
Cybersecurity & Privacy News offers daily news about cyber security and privacy. In this channel, you’ll find everything from alerts on the latest security vulnerabilities to all the latest news you might have missed elsewhere. Chatter is limited, but if you need a notification on what is happening in security vulns, this group is ideal for that.
5. Android Security & Malware (28k+ members)
Android Security & Malware is a channel for all things Android, discussing vulnerabilities, fuzzing techniques, guides and much more. On here you’ll find great questions and answers to real Android security problems, links to open source tools, malware analyses, new CVEs, and a plethora of tips and guides. And if you have something to share, that’s more than welcome, too. If you’re into Android security, this is a community you will definitely want to join.
6. Malware Research (9k+ members)
Malware Research is a channel for all malware practitioners, and you will come across many articles and useful Github repos that you would likely not come across if it wasn’t for being a member of this channel. This is an essential join if you’re a malware analyst, researcher, or reverse engineer.
7. BugCrowd (~7k members)
The BugCrowd channel has almost 3000 bug bounty hackers discussing topics like HackerOne, Intigriti, Cobalt Strike, Yogosha and more. Here you will also learn of new bug bounty programs and platforms. Anyone interested in finding and responsibly disclosing security vulnerabilities will find plenty of value in the discussions in this channel. Expect to learn a lot and don’t be afraid to contribute back to the community when you have something interesting to share.
8. Red Team Alerts (11k+ members)
Red Team Alerts is a dedicated channel for, you guessed it, all things red teaming! From beginners guides and hardware how-tos, this channel will provide help to expand your awareness of what’s going on in, and how to get involved with, the fascinating world of offensive security testing, role playing and attack modelling.
9. APT Intelligence (1k+ members)
APT Intelligence is a recent but growing channel that serves up links and news on topics related to advanced threat actors, tools, techniques and procedures.
Despite the focused name, the nature of APT tradecraft means there’s inevitably wide coverage of many other cybersecurity topics of interest, particularly tools for things like OSINT, pen testing, password cracking and so on. We’ve found a number of interesting tools through this channel recently and it promises to be an extremely useful resource.
10. Reverse Engineering Hangout (~4800 members)
Reverse Engineering Hangout is a small but useful place to learn more and share knowledge about reverse engineering. You can also ask questions about assembly, opcodes, x86 and anything else if you need help understanding how a sample works. Ideal for beginners who want to learn, or experts willing to share, you’ll also find plenty of links to free online resources on topics like binary exploitation, reverse engineering and CTF challenges. Unlike some of the other groups in our list, REH doesn’t mind links to other relevant Telegram groups, so you can also use this channel as a jumping board to discover other channels related to RE such as the much larger but single-focus channel for Frida.
Are There Other Good Cybersecurity Channels on Telegram?
Of course! There are many, and you can use the search tool in your Telegram client to discover channels by keyword or tag. Note that in our selection, we’ve specifically avoided groups that share prohibited copyright material, that publish stolen credentials or that explore the less seemly side of cybersecurity. Such groups certainly exist and can be useful to researchers with specialist interest.
We’ve also focused on broad-interest groups rather than special interest groups dedicated to particular security tools or security software, but again, these can also be found through a bit of searching. Finally, we limited our choice to English language-only (or mainly) channels, but there is a wide variety of other channels on Telegram that cater to other languages, not least, of course, Russian!
