R.The Trump administration is facing a heavy reaction to use the signal, the application of the correspondence, to discuss sensitive military plans. On March 24, officials’ use of the application was revealed yet Atlantic Ocean Editor Jeffrey Goldberg published a story entitled “The Trump administration was mistakenly written by war plans“Where Defense Minister Beit Higseth discussed, among other things, the military strikes coming to Yemen.
The United States government previously frustrated Federal employees use the application for official works. Some experts have forecast The sharing of sensitive national security details can be illegal, and their democratic legislators Investigation. “If the secrets of our military nation roam around the unsafe text chains, we need to know this at the same time.” He said On the ground of the Senate.
The sign is one of the most secure and private correspondence platforms for general general use. But cyber security experts argue that the application should not be used for this level of sensitive communication. “Signal is a very strong application: it is used by many cyber security professionals in our contacts that we want to protect,” says Michael Daniel, President and Executive Director of Cyber Threats and Cyber Security Coordinator during the era of President Obama. “But it is not as safe as government communications channels. The use of these types of channels increases the risk of something wrong.”
Signal strengths
Signal was launched in 2014, with the aim of creating a correspondent to maintain privacy in the era of increased collective monitoring. Signal conversations are protected by encryption from end to end, a technique that makes it very difficult for a third party interceptor or decoding private messages. While other correspondence tools may collect sensitive personal data, the signal is proud to protect information safely such as correspondence, frequency and duration contacts.
The app contains other privacy features, such as messages that disappear automatically after a specific period and prevent clips of conversations. Signal data is locally stored on user devices, not company servers. “Our goal is that every person in the world can capture their devices, and without thinking twice in that, or even ideological commitment to privacy, he uses a signal to communicate with anyone who want them.” time In 2022.
Read more: Merridith Whitaker, head of the signal signal, is participating in the next messaging application
During the past few years, the signal has been used by defectors Demonstrators All over the world who want to maintain their talks safely from political enemies or law enforcement. In Ukraine, the American embassy in Kyiv Described It indicates the importance of their work in its ability to ensure safe, fast and easily accessible contacts. The application now includes 70 million users all over the world, according to the tracking site Application works.
Government use
Using signal for government purposes is more controversial. In 2021 rebuke A former signal official, saying that he does not comply with the Freedom of Information Law, which is drawn that the government has legal obligations to maintain federal records. However, Goldberg said this week that Trump’s signal chat was appointed to delete messages automatically after a period of time.
Sam Venusrad, who was occupied by the former Internal Security Administration Barack Obama, told CBS that the exchange details of sensitive security on the signal It can be violated The act of espionage as well. Senior intelligence officials witnessed this week that no secret information was shared on the group chat. The director of the CIA, John Ratcliffe, said the reference was “an allowance to use work” for the CIA.
Read more: Trump’s senior officials defend the sign chat in the Congress certificate
Last week, a Pentagon consultant Military individuals warned against using the signal Because of the Russian infiltrators targeting the application.
Daniel from the Cyber Threats Alliance says he was surprised that senior officials were using a sign, given that they have access to the safest channels of the most secure government. When discussing sensitive information, officials are usually required to do this in customized safe areas called Scifs, or to use SIPRNET, a safe network used by defense and state departments.
“These are senior officials who have a lot of options. They have people who are completely their jobs are to make sure they are able to communicate at all times,” says Daniel. “We have had it for decades now, and those measures are well sharpened.”
Daniel claims that government tools could have prevented the error that occurred in this case: the human error of the external party that is adding by mistake to the series of messages. He says that government channels have a “higher level of approval” to ensure that members of communication channels are supposed to have.
Dave Chronister, CEO of Cyblessecurity Parameter Security, says the government’s communication channels prevent other types of interlocutors or infiltrators who are trying to use hunting techniques or malware to learn information. He says: “If you are on a mobile phone, I do not know who can look at my shoulder to find out what I write, not to mention that I do not know what is another on this mobile device.”
Chronister adds that officials’ use, unlike internal channels, makes it difficult for the government to define and contain violations as soon as they happen. “We could have data there we did not know that it was at risk,” he says. “If senior cabinet officials are using a signal, I am wondering about the amount that is done daily – and I think there will be many repercussions of this.”
A representative did not respond immediately to the comment.