Artur Papyan: Sharing information on the country’s defense via messenger apps is problematic

Cyber security expert Artur Papyan considers the practice of sharing information related to the country’s defense through messenger applications to be problematic.

Referring to the publication of the Prime Minister’s WhatsApp correspondence with the former Defense Minister on Tiktok, the expert told Alpha News that in countries with border tensions, such as Armenia, senior officials should be careful and take emergency measures for communication to avoid being targeted by spies.

“Communication of matters related to the country’s defense cannot be carried out via ordinary civilian technology. All senior officials in Armenia are targeted by spyware because Azerbaijan is known to be a user of the Pegasus spyware, which means that no matter what application the interlocutor uses, the spyware is still running on the device itself and receiving information, which is dangerous.

Such high-ranking officials must take extraordinary measures when talking about important topics, and this should not be done via some ordinary mobile phone application. A special type of communication must exist in a country at war or near war. Senior officials should try to meet face-to-face when discussing important information, staying away from all possible types of listening devices and technologies,” Papyan said.

Earlier, Nikol Pashinyan spoke for the first time about the reason for dismissing Arshak Karapetyan from his position as Minister of Defense. According to Pashinyan, on November 14, 2021, Karapetyan reported to him in the morning that everything along the border was calm, while at the time of his report, Azerbaijani troops had invaded a number of locations on the border of Armenia and even overrun positions.

After Pashinyan’s statement, Arshak Karapetyan shared a video, saying that he was in Dubai that day and had no physical opportunity to report to Nikol Pashinyan about the border situation.

Hours later, Nikol Pashinyan posted on his official Tiktok an excerpt from the correspondence he had on the morning of November 14, 2021, with Arshak Karapetyan, with the caption saying, “Disclosing Arshak Karapetyan’s lie”.