Signalgate: Pete Hegseth’s problematic passion for groupchats

A hacker has obtained direct messages and contact information from TeleMessage, the Israeli software company that offers modified versions of Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram, and other apps to the US government, according to a report from 404Media. Last week, a photo of former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz appeared to show him using a Signal clone offered by the company.

TeleMessage lets users archive their chats in secure messaging apps. However, the hacker reportedly found that TeleMessage’s archived chat logs aren’t end-to-end encrypted, allowing them to access the contents of certain messages, government official contact information, and login credentials for the service’s backend.

The Pentagon Inspector General is expanding an inquiry into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s questionable Signal group chats. According to the The Wall Street Journal, the investigation is now also looking into a second chat, as well as exactly how classified information was transferred from a secure government computer onto Hegseth’s account on his personal devices.

Beyond the “Houthi PC Small Group” that inadvertently added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine to discussions about an upcoming military strike in Yemen, the existence of a second chat was reported by The New York Times in April. According to the Times, Hegseth sent the same information about the Yemeni strike to a chat called “Defense | Group Huddle,” which included his wife, brother, personal lawyer, and several personal friends.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly shared details about the March 15th Yemen military strikes in another Signal chat with people who weren’t government officials, reports The New York Times. The chat included his wife and “about a dozen” others he knew personally and professionally, the outlet writes, citing conversations with four unnamed sources.

The details he shared “included the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen,” writes the Times, which notes the details were “essentially the same” as those shared in the Signal chat between Hegseth and other officials last month that included Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, who was added by mistake.

If you hadn’t heard of Signal before this week, chances are you’re well aware of it now. The messaging app was thrust into the news on Monday when The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was mistakenly added to a group chat involving top military officials planning an airstrike. Even though it entered the discourse for extremely unusual reasons, Signal has been, and remains, a well-regarded messaging platform for secure communication. It’s not foolproof — emphasis on fool, in this case — but it’s worth understanding what it is and how it works, even if you’re not a person who deals with highly confidential information.

Signal is a messaging app. You download it to your iOS or Android device, link your phone number, and you’re ready to go — just like other services like WhatsApp or Telegram. The thing that makes Signal different is its emphasis on privacy. Communication on the platform is end-to-end encrypted by default, and the app offers additional protections to keep your private discussions private.

The Trump administration planned a military strike in Yemen the way normal people plan a surprise birthday party: in a group chat.

As detailed by The Atlantic earlier this week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, and other senior officials used a Signal group to discuss an attack on Houthi targets, sharing details that included the movement of American assets in advance of their deployment. The news leaked because one member, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, made the bizarre mistake of inviting Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg into the discussion. But even before that moment, Hegseth and the rest were doing something dangerous and far outside the bounds of normal military planning — while using an app that, for ordinary people, is still one of the best ways to have a private chat.

On March 24th, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg published a damning story about being added to the ‘Houthi PC Small Group’ on Signal by Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz. In it, he described inadvertently becoming privy to high-level military operation planning that should never have taken place on Signal by people who really should have known better. The administration spent the next two days saying that the contents of the chat were “nonclassified.” On March 26th, The Atlantic released the texts, which included weather conditions for targeted strikes, descriptions of the targets, confirmations, congratulations, names of specific drones used in the attack, and more.

Previously, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth claimed, “Nobody was texting war plans. And that’s all I have to say about that.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that “No ‘war plans’ were discussed” (but also later emailed The Atlantic to say “we object to the release” of the texts). At the subsequent hearing, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard reiterated the claim that “no classified material” was shared.

Getting added to the wrong group chat is a common problem, but what if that group chat is describing an upcoming military strike? That’s what happened to The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who was added to a Signal group chat formed by high-ranking members of the Trump administration to discuss plans for military strikes on Yemen. As a result, he had the details of a bombing attack targeting the Houthis hours before it actually occurred on March 15th, facts later confirmed not only by the attacks going off on schedule but in comments from National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes, who said they are “reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”

The 18 members of the chat — named “Houthi PC Small group” — appear to have included vice president JD Vance, defense secretary Pete Hegseth, and national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard, all freely chatting with The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief listening in. Goldberg says he’s unsure how he was added or how no one on the thread noticed his presence. Discussions of classified military plans are generally not supposed to take place on consumer messaging apps.