Cyber Security Expert Weighs In On The Trump Administration's Use Of Signal Amid Leaked Houthi Chat

2 days ago

Melissa O'Leary, CSO at Fortalice Solutions, joined "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss the use of Signal by the Trump administration.

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Transcript

00:00The Atlantic's editor-in-chief wrote that he was inadvertently added to a group chat with the

00:05nation's top security advisors and leaders that detailed U.S. plans to conduct airstrikes in

00:11Yemen against the Houthis. What are your thoughts here from a cybersecurity expert?

00:18Definitely mixed thoughts on this topic. Signal is really a best-in-class app for secure and

00:24encrypted messaging. According to the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, it's

00:31actually pre-installed on government laptops and phones. It's kind of to be seen whether

00:39the communication there was on personal devices, government devices, all of that back and forth.

00:46I think that in terms of inadvertently adding a journalist is certainly unprecedented.

00:55There's just a lot that we need to continue to learn here. I know that there's a

01:00meeting on the Hill in progress right now on what happened, why it happened, and we'll learn a lot

01:08from that. Just a final thought is that I worked in the government under the Bush administration,

01:15and a lot of the policies and the laws in this space have to do with the classification of the

01:20information and protecting that information. The administration has stated that there was

01:26no classified information in the exchange, which I think will have to be fully vetted

01:34by the Intelligence Committee and by the Director of National Intelligence.

01:39But that would really kind of drive, I think, whether the administration ran afoul of anything.

01:48I guess my question to you is, as the cybersecurity expert, you're not as concerned

01:53that Signal was used. You're more concerned that the journalist was inadvertently added,

01:58plus that this type of classified, sensitive information was shared on this app, or it's

02:04not even the app. It's just that he was added. I think, as a cybersecurity expert, it's that he

02:12was added. I don't personally have issues with the Signal app. My philosophy is that everything

02:20is hacked or will be hacked. If there's a motivated adversary on one side of the equation,

02:31they're going to find a way to get in. It doesn't matter if it's Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram,

02:37iMessage, an adversary is going to get in. It doesn't also matter if it's a highly classified

02:44system in the government. Those can also be infiltrated, obviously, a lot harder for an

02:48adversary. I do think it comes down to the information and how we're trained to share

02:54information and where we're sharing it. The White House, the Trump administration,

02:59National Security Advisor Michael Waltz himself said that they're still trying to figure out how

03:04exactly Jeffrey Goldberg, that journalist from The Atlantic, was added to the chat.

03:08According to the screenshot, it says Michael Waltz added you to the chat. Is there any way he could

03:14have been nefariously added to this chat or based on Signal, based on what you know of Signal,

03:19Michael Waltz himself or whoever was using his account had to add him?

03:24That's a really intelligent question. From my experience with Signal, Michael Waltz would have

03:30had to have added him. The logging is pretty good on Signal. I do think that that account is,

03:38Michael Waltz's true account is the one that would have added the journalist.

Cyber Security Expert Weighs In On The Trump Administration's Use Of Signal Amid Leaked Houthi Chat

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