The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.
By Jeffrey Goldberg
[This article reads like satire]
The one with Big Bird is backwards. I feel like the reporter was the only adult in the room.
Much like Big Bird is aloof but more mature than anyone around him pretty often.
Just a reminder that they chose to use Signal for a reason, and those are also reasons we normal citizens should use Signal too! At least try and talk your closest relatives into dumping WhatsApp for it.
Yeah, this article was truly a fascinating read! The one thing that surprised me from Goldberg though, was that he continually questioned their use of signal. I mean, why wouldn’t they use it?
They could try to develop their own secure messaging app, but what would be the point of that when another already exists and they can verify the code is air tight because it’s open source. And, developing their own app would mean the possibility of relying on software that could contain unknown bugs or vulnerabilities.
The only safe cryptographic systems are open source ones.
Your logic is valid for a small business - yes a SME doesn’t need to create their own messaging app, but this is the US government, they have the resources and need for their own. Further, commercial products controlled by outsiders can be compromised, and for state level targets it’s an issue to not control the communication through its whole journey.
“Rolling your own” cryptographic system is rarely a good idea. There are countless examples of companies and governments deciding to ignore existing tested and verified standard industry tools on the basis they’re more vulnerable because they’re more well known, but that decision tends to bite them in the end because the solution they come up with has some critical vulnerabilities they didn’t notice in time. These things are easy to miss when there isn’t a whole global community of security professionals looking at the code.
Now I’ll admit that the US government could absolutely create a comparable or even superior solution if they put the right people and enough funding behind the project, no doubt. There is the question of whether or not it’s worth doing, worth the investment. If budgets are tight (because conservatives are so concerned about govt spending 🙄), I’d certainly rather they use signal than they decide to dedicate almost enough funding and develop something that almost works; that could also be disastrous.
Honestly, the best move for the government is probably to make their own app utilizing existing standards. The signal protocol is perfectly open and free, they just need their own clients. Well, that and some identity verification in the account creation process. But yeah, If they had their own app, they could design it to do some useful things, like verify all members in a group have appropriate security clearance. That might have come in handy…
So yeah, I don’t really disagree with you, they should probably be using their own system. But I think it’s easy to think that any bespoke system would inherently be superior, and that very much isn’t the case. And with that in mind I’d say it’s truly not a crazy or negligent choice to use the existing best-of-class systems off the shelf. It’s maybe not the best choice, but it’s not a bad one.
It’s okay, they weren’t emails…
There should be as much outrage over this as they did with Clinton but 1) the Republicans are hypocrites, 2) the Democrats are weak.
The Trump administration is so close to making the greatest post of all time on the War Thunder forums
“Powerful start”?
Of course.
This - the abhorrent security alone - should be like, 24/7 on every channel invasion of Iraq TV, but no.
Pete Hegseth is smart enough to use Signal, but not enough to not add Jack Daniels to the group chat.
I mean, signal literally has the same UI as whatsapp. My 87 year old grandma somewhat manages to use whatsapp.
How drunk is she while using it?
Good thing they fired everyone who worked in secure communications.
Even my work has better OPSEC on a random stupid meeting with nothing interesting. They review every attendee to make sure no one unexpected is in the chat.
Yo what the fuck
I think the screenshot removed your link?
Oh I think it did as well. Sorry about that!
I think I fixed it
It’s like an entire administration full of Rudy Giulianis. He had a history of butt-dialing and accidentally leaving unfortunate (for him) voice mails on reporter’s phones.
Well, at least it encrypted, unlike trumps bathroom.
Wow. Just wow.
