Before this week’s report that top Trump officials had mistakenly added a journalist to a group chat on the private messaging app Signal, the National Security Agency had warned of the app’s vulnerabilities despite its claim of being encrypted.
The warnings were shared via internal NSA documents that were obtained by CBS News. The report comes just days after Jeffrey Goldberg, the top editor for The Atlantic, wrote an article detailing how he was added to a private Signal group chat in which top officials allegedly shared detailed war plans.
Those Goldberg reported were in the group chat included Vice President Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
He says the messages he received included “precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing.”
The NSA, an intelligence arm of the Defense Department, specializes in intelligence and cybersecurity. Part of its responsibilities include monitoring, collecting, and processing information and data for the United States.
The internal documents about Signal from the NSA, entitled “Signal Vulnerability,” were unclassified but meant for official use only. They were shared with CBS News by a senior U.S. intelligence official and were sent a month before Goldberg was mistakenly added to the group chat.
“A vulnerability has been identified in the Signal Messenger Application. The use of Signal by common targets of surveillance and espionage activity has made the application a high-value target to intercept sensitive information,” the internal bulletin begins.
The documents go on to warn that the app is vulnerable to Russian professional hacking groups employing phishing scams so they can gain access to encrypted conversations. The documents also warned that while Signal and Whatsapp are allowed for certain “unclassified accountability/recall exercises,” they should not be used for communicating more sensitive information.
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NSA employees were also warned not to send “anything compromising over any social media or Internet-based tool or application.” They were also warned against establishing “connections with people you do not know.”
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