Information
The leak of classified information by President Donald Trump’s national security team on an unsecured chat app, Signal, has raised significant concerns. Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported being accidentally included in the group chat, where he saw details of imminent American strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen. The White House confirmed the authenticity of the messages. Despite Signal’s reputation for security, experts warn that using it for sensitive communications is risky, especially given efforts by state-backed hackers to compromise the platform. Pentagon regulations prohibit using such apps for non-public DoD information, and former officials emphasised that classified information should never be shared on Signal.
The incident has sparked discussions about potential violations of federal laws, such as the Espionage Act, and the need for secure communication protocols. Mara Karlin, a former assistant secretary of defence, and other experts stressed that sensitive conversations should occur in secure spaces like the Pentagon or the Situation Room, not on Signal. The leak has also raised questions about compliance with the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act, which require the preservation of government records.
Source: DW, Reuters, BBC
So what
This is a significant breach of national security, and it throws up many questions about how Trump’s senior team treats national security information. Regardless of whether the information is no longer useful post-strike, it is highly likely to still be highly classified, and they likely knew it when they posted it. This is likely not the only group chat that was being utilised, indicating that there may be a significant amount of classified information on their devices that could have been accessed easily with commercially available spyware.
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