Der Spiegel reports that in some cases it found password details for Mike Waltz, Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard via hacked data dumps and commercial providers

Summary

Private data of top Trump officials, including phone numbers, emails, and, in some cases, passwords of Mike Waltz, Pete Hegseth, and Tulsi Gabbard, were found online after a Signal chat scandal involving airstrike planning on Yemen.

Der Spiegel reports that some password details were obtained via hacked data dumps and commercial providers, posing security risks like spyware installation.

The scandal raised concerns of foreign espionage during top-secret planning discussions, further damaging the administration’s credibility.

  • manucode@infosec.pubEnglish
    61·
    5 days ago

    This has nothing to do with Signalgate directly, except that it affects some of the same Trump officials.

    Furthermore, the main concerns about Signalgate isn’t Signal’s security. While we can obviously never fully rule out that Signal could be compromised, there are many other ways the chat could get compromised:

    1. Someone’s Signal account could get compromised if someone else steals or guesses the password (like in the Spiegel article).
    2. Some unauthorized person could accidentally get invited to the chat (for example a journalist from the Atlantic).
    3. One of the phones could get hacked. (This is likely to happen if someone takes their phone to Russia.)

    Additionally, Signal was used to avoid any records of what was discussed.