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A political storm continues in Washington on Tuesday after a secret chat involving senior officials in U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration was exposed. Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic, was mistakenly added to the group, where officials allegedly discussed classified plans for airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
The White House launched an investigation but has not explained why top officials discussed sensitive security matters in an unsecured chat or how Goldberg was added without anyone noticing. Meanwhile, the administration is considering dismissing National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who mistakenly included Goldberg in the group.
Goldberg reported that the messages contained highly detailed operational information, including strike targets, the types of weapons planned for deployment and the order of operations. It's unclear whether the leaked material was classified but such information is typically kept under strict secrecy to protect forces on the ground and ensure mission success.
The app at the center of the controversy
The American officials used Signal, an open-source messaging app with end-to-end encryption. Available for free on Android and iOS, it supports voice and video calls and even cryptocurrency payments via MobileCoin.
Signal was launched in 2014 by developer Moxie Marlinspike and his team. Initially owned by Open Whisper Systems, the app has been managed since 2018 by the nonprofit Signal Foundation, co-founded by Marlinspike and WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton.
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Unlike commercial platforms like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, Signal operates without a data-driven business model. Instead, it relies on donations from private individuals and philanthropic organizations to fund its mission of protecting user privacy.
Despite being widely used in Washington — including during the previous administration under Joe Biden — Signal is not considered secure enough for classified discussions, as users can be freely added to chats, similar to WhatsApp.
The app has also been targeted by cyberattacks. Just last month, Google-owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant reported that Russian-linked actors attempted to hack Signal accounts of Ukrainian military personnel by impersonating contacts.
In 2023, researchers discovered a method to track users’ locations by measuring the delay between sending a message and receiving a delivery receipt. The technique had an 82% accuracy rate, raising concerns about potential surveillance risks.
As of 2022, over 40 million people used Signal, with a surge in January 2021 after WhatsApp changed its privacy policy. Following the update, many users switched to Signal, causing a temporary service outage. Data from Apptopia showed 1.3 million downloads within days of WhatsApp’s policy shift.