Ukrainians turned to encrypted messaging app Signal as Russians invaded

Facing uncertainty, Ukrainians looked for digital security in the form of the end-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal.

That's according to Matthew Prince, the cofounder and CEO of Cloudflare, whose internet infrastructure company gives him unique insight into what goes on behind the internet's scenes. In a Thursday tweet, Prince wrote that he observed Signal usage in Ukraine shooting up starting just after midnight on Feb. 24.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine began at approximately the same time.

"Spike in use of Signal (messaging app) in Ukraine in the last 24 hours," he wrote on Feb. 24. "Smaller but significant increase in the use of Telegram as well."

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That Ukrainians would look to Signal at a time of crisis should come as no surprise. With multiple reports detailing the cybersecurity threat Russian forces pose to Ukraine, it's understandable that Signal, which is generally agreed upon by cybersecurity experts to be the most secure messaging app, would see increased use.

We reached out to Cloudflare for more detail on the Ukrainian jump in Signal usage and to determine if it has continued as the war in Ukraine has progressed.

"That's all the data Cloudflare has on those messaging apps," replied a company spokesperson, who noted Cloudflare is monitoring the situation in Ukraine. "This morning (February 25) around 0600 UTC there was a short peak in cyberattacks against Ukrainian websites but since then cyberattack activity against these websites has been significantly lower than yesterday." 

Using Signal, of course, is not the only digital security step people should take to ensure that their private communications aren't intercepted or blocked. On Friday, Tor, a free, privacy-preserving internet browsing service, shared a detailed Twitter thread explaining how people in Ukraine and Russia can get around internet censorship.

"As a new war develops, journalists, activists, and human rights defenders in Ukraine and Russia can defend themselves against online surveillance and censorship by using Tor," wrote the organization.

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While experts like the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Director of Cybersecurity Eva Galperin constantly remind people that there's more to cybersecurity advice than simply saying "use Tor, use Signal" over and over, those services do still provide real value — especially, as this week's spike in Ukrainian Signal usage suggests, in times of crisis.