Andrew R. Chow
The Trump administration is facing heavy blowback for using Signal, a messaging app, to discuss sensitive military plans. On March 24, officials’ usage of the app was revealed after The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg published a story titled "The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans," in which Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, among others, discussed upcoming military strikes on Yemen.
The U.S. government previously discouraged federal employees from using the app for official business. Some experts have speculated that sharing sensitive national security details over Signal could be illegal, and Democratic lawmakers have demanded an investigation. “If our nation's military secrets are being peddled around over unsecure text chains, we need to know that at once,” New York Democrat Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor.
Signal is one of the most secure and private messaging platforms that exists for general public use. But cybersecurity experts argue that the app should not have been used for this level of sensitive communication. “Signal is a very robust app: a lot of cybersecurity professionals use it for our communications that we want to protect,” says Michael Daniel, president and CEO of the Cyber Threat Alliance and a cybersecurity coordinator under President Obama. “But it’s not as secure as government communications channels. And the use of these kinds of channels increases the risk that something is going to go wrong.”
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