Pentagon responds to White House national security fumble with warning about Signal

The Pentagon has released a statement regarding the messaging app Signal following the White House fumbling causing a national security issue when it added a reporter to a group chat with government officials discussing military strikes in a foreign country.

For those who are out of the loop the warning from the Pentagon about Signals came after The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported he was added to a group chat that among others, included key officials such as Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. The topic of discussion was military strikes in Yemen, with the mention of timings, weapons used, and targets.

Reports indicate that a 2023 Department of Defense memo states government officials are banned from using mobile apps for "controlled unclassified information (CUI)." NPR states that military operations are many degrees more sensitive than CUI, which can include proprietary business information, tax records, law enforcement data, and personally identifiable data. The debacle is still unfolding in the Senate, with members of the Signal group chat now appearing before officials to answer questions about the legitimacy of the plans.

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The Pentagon has since responded to the lapse in national security with a warning that a vulnerability has been identified in the Signal messenger application.

"A vulnerability has been identified in the Signal messenger application. Russian professional hacking groups are employing [Signal's] 'linked devices' features to spy on encrypted conversations." Adding, Russian hackers are "targeting Signal Messenger to spy on persons of interest," reads a department-wide email obtained by NPR