back to article Signal chat app clone used by Signalgate's Waltz was apparently an insecure mess

An unidentified miscreant is said to have obtained US government communications from TeleMessage, a messaging and archiving app based on the open-source Signal app and used by ousted national security advisor Michael Waltz. TeleMessage, which was acquired by Oregon-based Smarsh in 2024, says it's shut the app down for now. " …

  1. YTC#1

    Is it just me that parsed that as SMERSH?

    1. Ian Mason

      No, I did too. I find the similarity a little "something", quite what that "something" is I'm not quite sure

  2. Dan 55 Silver badge
    FAIL

    But her e-mails!

    Clueless idiots, the lot of 'em.

  3. Grindslow_knoll

    Signal has encrypted backups

    This whole compromise is the reason why Signal has only ever had encrypted backups and there is no access if you do lose the credentials.

    In the context of the signalgate saga it's hard to understand that, if you decide use an app so you have communications that you think allow you to sidestep the whole disclosure procedure, you then use a version that leaks them in plaintext.

    1. elsergiovolador Silver badge

      Re: Signal has encrypted backups

      He probably planned to use defence of being a clinical imbecile.

      1. Yorick Hunt Silver badge

        Re: Signal has encrypted backups

        Isn't that the primary qualification required to become a politician?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Signal has encrypted backups

          It is in the Trump era..

        2. Potemkine! Silver badge

          Re: Signal has encrypted backups

          I wonder if this isn't a primary qualification to vote for them....

    2. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Re: Signal has encrypted backups

      In the context of the signalgate saga it's hard to understand that, if you decide use an app so you have communications that you think allow you to sidestep the whole disclosure procedure, you then use a version that leaks them in plaintext.

      I suspect that the sweet spot is to have deniability - to be able to say that you've used a communications method that doesn't allow messages to be stored. Thus there's no evidence, if you don'ot want there to be.

      On the other hand, sometimes it's useful to have evidence. For example, if you get into a pissing contest with one of your "colleagues". You're unlikely to want to go public with it, but for internal use, specifically when trying to get Trump on your side of an issue - being able to show him the evidence could turn out to be quite useful. You never know, the idea might even be to keep stuff for the memoirs.

      1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: Signal has encrypted backups

        There's usually sufficient metadata to provide evidence of communication and not keeping records is a violation of the Presidential Records Act.

        I can see the legitimate use of commuincations systems for which leave little or no trace, but these would be using dedicated and disposable hardware and not available to any member of the administration.

  4. elDog

    Helluva demotion, waltz. You're foisted onto the UN - a backwater in the middle of nowhere.

    This is a good way to show the United Nations how seriously trmp thinks of them. First he proposed a congress-critter-liar named Stefanik who had to be withdrawn. Guess it's like an FBI agent assigned to Juneau, AK. Or a russian dissident assigned to Siberia.

    1. Someone Else Silver badge

      Re: Helluva demotion, waltz. You're foisted onto the UN - a backwater in the middle of nowhere.

      Guess it's like an FBI agent assigned to Juneau, AK.

      You don't need to send them to Alaska...send them to North Dakota instead!

    2. Pascal Monett Silver badge
      Mushroom

      Re: Helluva demotion, waltz. You're foisted onto the UN - a backwater in the middle of nowhere.

      What it is does not concern me. What it isn't does.

      What it isn't is him in handcuffs going in front of a judge explaining why a National Security Advisor, a prominent figure in the US government directly responsible for the nation's security, is using an unsecure, unvetted app and, from what I've read elsewhere, a direct connection to the Internet that does not go through the secure firewall.

      This group of clown led by the orange baboon is a mockery of government, of democracy and of just plain decency.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Helluva demotion, waltz. You're foisted onto the UN - a backwater in the middle of nowhere.

        Because the people with the handcuffs work for them. And the judges either support them or get put in handcuffs.

  5. GBE

    I wish...

    I wish I was even a little bit shocked or surprised.

    Oh, I used to be disgusted,

    Now I try to be amused...

    But it doesn't work. I'm still just disgusted.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Beautiful

    Not just the fact someone has emailed him the source code, but the fact that - thanks to the GPL - he can republish it without fear of recrimination. Very, very well played indeed.

  7. Someone Else Silver badge

    A quote from Forrest Gump comes to mind.

    How motherfuckin' stupid is this man? He lost is job because he couldn't be arsed to keep secret things secret. Twice. And there he is again, doing the same stupid motherfuckin' thing again. On a even less secure app. Now, everyone by now knows there are secure communications apps that are government sanctioned for just exactly this exact use. What, is this mofut just too stupid to use them? Or perhaps he really is just one of those sub-room-temperature-IQ sporting cretins that doesn't know he's supposed to use the secure apps. In either case, he should be deterred from using anything short of crayons and 3-lined paper for communications. (Just like his boss.)

    And he's gonna be our next UN Ambassador? Seriously?!?

    1. GBE

      Re: A quote from Forrest Gump comes to mind.

      How motherfuckin' stupid is this man?

      Well, Trump has zero tolerance for anybody smarter than himself, and Waltz is still apparently in Trump's good graces, so I think the answer is obvious: Waltz has got to be pretty damn stupid.

    2. elsergiovolador Silver badge

      Re: A quote from Forrest Gump comes to mind.

      UN is like Alcoholics Anonymous where everyone gets paid to drink.

      1. elsergiovolador Silver badge

        Re: A quote from Forrest Gump comes to mind.

        Why so many downvotes? There couldn't be more corrupt and useless organisation than UN!

        1. Potemkine! Silver badge
          FAIL

          Re: A quote from Forrest Gump comes to mind.

          FAO, OACI, OMI, OIT, UIT, BIRD to name a few are all part of the UN. And they are quite useful.

        2. Irongut Silver badge

          Re: A quote from Forrest Gump comes to mind.

          > There couldn't be more corrupt and useless organisation than UN!

          The Republican Party.

          Whatever Trump's business operations are called.

          Palantir.

          There's three off the top of my head and I've not finished my coffee yet.

          1. elsergiovolador Silver badge

            Re: A quote from Forrest Gump comes to mind.

            Ok, you win.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A quote from Forrest Gump comes to mind.

      He absolutely does know yes supposed to be using secure, government sanctioned Comms channels.

      He also knows those channels are sanctioned by government because they can be monitored by said government's security services.

      Make of that what you will.

      1. Graham Cobb

        Re: A quote from Forrest Gump comes to mind.

        The real Signal app cannot be monitored by any security services as far as anyone knows.

        However, using the real app means that when he loses his phone (or has it taken away from him by his boss/the authorities) he can't retrieve the messages he might weally need to get him out of trouble with said boss/the public/the authorities of whatever other country he wants to impress.

        He doesn't know that you can have security, or you can have archives. Not both.

        1. Natalie Gritpants Jr

          Re: A quote from Forrest Gump comes to mind.

          You can photograph your secure app with another phone. Useful for a get-out-of-jail-free situation

          1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

            Re: A quote from Forrest Gump comes to mind.

            Even better, you can then photoshop the image to make your ramblings look less inane.

            1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

              That would require a level of skill, something that no one in the current goverment has any of any notice or usefulness (apart from kissing ass).

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        And if said government's security services found anything compromising?

        They would have had to report it to... ousted national security advisor Michael Waltz?

    4. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: A quote from Forrest Gump comes to mind.

      He's obviously worked out that there was something a bit wrong with his use of Signal but just not what it was so insteado fthat he's used something a bit different.

    5. vtcodger Silver badge

      Re: A quote from Forrest Gump comes to mind.

      While the US military and intelligence communities have cultures that take Security seriously, I've never seen any sign that the legislative and (especially) executive branches care much about it. I really wouldn't expect too much on that front from a government led by a guy who had a shower stall full of classified documents he could have formally declassified in about 60 seconds when he was in office. All he had to do was tell his document control clerk "You see those filing cabinets over there. I just declassified everything in them. Make it so."

    6. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

      Re: A quote from Forrest Gump comes to mind.

      Do you actually need an Ambassador to the U.N.? It's just a building in New York City.

    7. IglooDame

      Re: A quote from Forrest Gump comes to mind.

      He's not going to be the next UN Ambassador, he's being nominated for it. He'll clearly not have the confirmation votes in the Senate, his nomination will be withdrawn, and that's that, he can go run for some US Rep seat or governor or something. See this way he's not being fired, so Trump (theoretically) doesn't look dumb for having him as his Nat'l Sec Advisor in the first place.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Only the very best people

    You won’t believe how best these people are!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Only the very best people

      You won’t believe how best these people are!

      Only if perhaps you admit an an acronym. Something like:

      Bloody Extraordinarily Stupid Twats

      and even then these bestial blots have left enough slack to exceed themselves before achieving the superlative best b.e.s.t.

      In most parts of the globe if for whatever reason the gates to the institutions containing the criminally insane were to be left open and the nation awoke to find a menagerie of dangerously psychotic maniacs making the pretense of running the place the good citizens would deal with the nutters fairly summarily and without the "benefit" of the second amendment. In the US they just open a few more gates.

  9. Mister Jones

    And Then There Is The NSO Product Pegasus......

    If an endpoint has been compromised with Pegasus, Signal or Telegram or TeleMessage are all compromised......

    ...because the miscreant controlling Pegasus can see everything in plain text on the end point!

    (1) Just ask Angela Merkel!!!

    (2) Have agents elsewhere in the administration used Pegasus on THEIR OWN COLLEAGUES??

    Paranoid? No.....not me!!

  10. Juha Meriluoto

    The snails on my front lawn...

    ...understand more about opsec than these clowns.

  11. IGotOut Silver badge

    More corporate weasel words.

    "Upon detection, we acted quickly to contain it "

    Detection?

    You "detected" fuck all.

    You were told of the breach and even given information on how it was done.

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