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.

Matthew Prince is the CEO of Cloudflare, a company that gives him insight into what goes on behind the scenes of the internet. Prince wrote that he observed signal usage shooting up in Ukraine just after midnight on February 24.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine began at the same time.

In the last 24 hours, there has been a significant increase in the use of Signal in Ukraine.

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It should come as no surprise that Ukrainians would look to signal at a time of crisis. It is understandable that Signal, which is generally agreed upon by cybersecurity experts to be the most secure messaging app, would see increased use.

We contacted Cloudflare to find out if the Ukrainian jump in Signal usage has continued as the war in Ukraine has progressed.

There was a short peak in cyberattacks against Ukrainian websites this morning.

The use of Signal is not the only digital security step people should take. On Friday, the free, privacy-preserving internet browsing service shared a detailed thread on how people in Russia and Ukraine can get around internet censorship.

As a new war develops, journalists, activists, and human rights defenders in Ukraine and Russia can use the internet to fight online censorship.

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Eva Galperin, Director of Cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, constantly reminds people that there is more to cybersecurity advice than just using a service.