A hacker stole data from TeleMessage, an Israeli company that sells versions of the Signal app to the United States government, 404 Media reported in a story published Sunday, May 4. The hack shows the vulnerabilities of an app that gathers information from some of the highest-ranking officials in government.
How are TeleMessage and the Signal app connected to recent events?
Reuters reported that TeleMessage is the unofficial version of Signal, which is the app used by former National Security Adviser Mike Waltz. Waltz created a Signal group chat about U.S. efforts to attack Houthi rebels in Yemen that accidentally included the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic.
President Donald Trump fired Waltz as national security adviser and said he would be nominated to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, which requires Senate approval.
Trump said in a Truth Social post on Thursday, May 1, that Waltz “worked hard” to put America’s interests first as national security adviser.
“I know he will do the same in his new role,” Trump said.
TeleMessage appears to have a similar interface and functions as Signal. 404 Media reported that the unidentified hacker claimed they had broken into TeleMessage’s infrastructure and intercepted some messages. 404 Media said it was able to verify some of the information.
A Reuters photograph captured Waltz appearing to use TeleMessage at a recent cabinet meeting.
Was any government information compromised or stolen?
The report indicated the hacker did not intercept messages from Waltz or anybody else in the Trump administration. Signal is an encrypted messaging platform, which focuses on privacy and security. Its messages are said to be scrambled and supposedly can only be decrypted by the sender or receiver.
How does TeleMessage work?
TeleMessage can capture messages once they’ve been decrypted so they can be preserved and stored. The Reuters report said those features can be useful for governments trying to retain documents, but can also be a security risk if not implemented properly.
A Signal spokesperson told Reuters the company “cannot guarantee the privacy or security properties of unofficial versions of Signal.”
TeleMessage’s parent company is now in the process of rebranding the app as Capture Mobile.
So far, there has been no official comment from the White House on the hacking report.
