Pentagon warned staffers against using Signal before White House chat leak

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Tue 25 Mar 2025 15.19 EDT
Last modified on Tue 25 Mar 2025 15.43 EDT


The Pentagon recently warned its employees against using Signal, the encrypted messaging app, due to a technical vulnerability, an NPR report reveals.

The report comes one day after the Atlantic published a story detailing how top national security officials, including the US vice-president and US defense secretary, had accidentally added a journalist to a Signal group chat, which revealed plans for military strikes in Yemen.

The Atlantic’s revelations sparked widespread outrage at the security lapse and sent ripples of shock at the breach through diplomatic circles across the world. However, Trump administration officials have tried to play down the sensitivity of the information exposed to the journalist. But according to a Pentagon “OPSEC special bulletin” seen by NPR reporters and sent on 18 March, Russian hacking groups may exploit the vulnerability in Signal to spy on encrypted organizations, potentially targeting “persons of interest”.

Signal uses end-to-end encryption for its messaging and calls. It is also an “open source” application, meaning the app’s code is open to independent review for any vulnerabilities. The app is typically used as a secure method to communicate. The Pentagon-wide memo said “third party messaging apps” like Signal are permitted to be used to share unclassified information, but they are not allowed to be used to send “non-public” unclassified information.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/25/signal-app-leaked-war-plans

[AmericaUnderSiege]

1. I doubt it's a "leak." These people are deliberately harming US national security.

They are property of our enemies and don't try to hide it.

Arrogant pieces of treasonous shit.

[FakeNoose]

2. The Russians have probably already hacked Signal by now

Or if they haven't, the Chinese have.

[BadgerKid]

3. Feel free to do a code review.

https://github.com/signalapp

It can happen that a backdoor gets installed and goes by unnoticed for a bit. There was one about a year ago in a compression library that was relevant to secure connections between computers.

[FakeNoose]

5. I'm not a coder, so I'll pass

But the Russians and Chinese coders all have access to the same info. I'm sure they've looked at it, more than briefly.

[ToxMarz]

4. These people are the poster children for the dunning kruger effect

They think they are so smart. Only the cool kids know about Signal. It's better than anything ever invented (some really popular influencer guy told them so).They are gonna show everybody how smart and edgy they THINK they are. They don't need the outdated bloated govenrment bureaucracy.