Featured Image Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Topics: Politics, Technology, US News, Donald Trump, JD Vance
Lucy Devine
Topics: Politics, Technology, US News, Donald Trump, JD Vance
A cybersecurity expert has shared a theory on why US government officials could have been discussing official matters on the Signal messaging app.
For us regular folk, adding the wrong person to a group chat is slightly embarrassing, but when it happens to a group of government officials, it's pretty alarming.
According to The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg - who pretty much broke the internet on Tuesday morning - this is exactly what happened, when he found himself in the midst of a group chat with the likes of vice president JD Vance, defence secretary Pete Hegseth, national security adviser Mike Waltz and director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Goldberg explained that he'd been privy to a series of messages where the US bombing of Houthis in Yemen was being planned.
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In fact, he says he'd been messaged the bombing plans two hours before the operation was carried out with 'precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing' by US defence secretary Pete Hegseth.
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So, how does a journalist end up in a government group chat? And why are US officials using Signal in the first place?
Well, Rob Pritchard, cybersecurity expert and founder of thecybersecurityexpert.com explained why this could have occurred.
He told LADbible: "I’m sure the US government doesn’t use Signal in any official capacity, or if it does, only for unclassified comms. People use it because it’s convenient and easy to use and I’m sure the officials on this chat are no different.
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"Also Signal is a good messaging app choice - it provides end to end encryption (meaning only you and the people you’re messaging can read the messages) and is very privacy and security focussed. None of that means it’s appropriate for classified material though."
Despite being secure, Rob explains that the app is only as good as the device it's used on.
"The apps are secure, yes but that doesn’t make it a good idea or appropriate for classified material," he continued. "The apps are only as good as the devices they are being used on - if someone has compromised your phone or computer and you are using Signal/Whatsapp they can read your messages, and I would expect senior US officials to be targeted by many capable adversaries.
"It’s a pretty egregious breach. It’s one thing to use signal for organising and general unclassified comms but it seems it went much further than that, and also clearly people aren’t paying attention to who they’re adding to these group chats."
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The group chat in question was started on 13 March with a message from Waltz.
The next day, Vance voiced doubts over the war plan, saying 'I think we are making a mistake'.
"3 percent of US trade runs through the suez. 40 percent of European trade does," Vance wrote in his message as he said there was a 'real risk that the public doesn't understand this'.
He went on to say he was 'not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now', and said there was also a risk of 'a moderate to severe spike in oil prices'.
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Further messages followed, including from Hegseth where he said 'nobody knows who the Houthis are' and said there were two reasons why they might not want to delay.
The first was the now rather ironic 'this leaks, and we look indecisive', the second was: "Israel takes an action first – or Gaza cease fire falls apart – and we don’t get to start this on our own terms."
When US President Donald Trump was asked about the leaked messages he said: "I don’t know anything about it. You’re telling me about it for the first time."
He then attacked The Atlantic as 'not much of a magazine' and shared a social media post from Elon Musk saying: "4D Chess: Genius Trump Leaks War Plans to ‘The Atlantic’ Where No One Will Ever See Them.”