Another messaging app used by the White House is in hot water

Soon after former National Security Adviser Mike Waltz appeared at the center of a major scandal over the use of messaging app Signal, the White House found itself in trouble again when Waltz was photographed using another messaging app, TeleMessage. The latter was recently hacked and then suspended its service, causing more concern among national security experts.

What happened with the app?

The app in question, TeleMessage, was infiltrated by a hacker, who stole data containing the "contents of some direct messages and group chats sent using its Signal clone, as well as modified versions of WhatsApp," according to tech outlet 404Media, which first reported the incident. The app was reportedly used by high-level members of the Trump administration, including Waltz, Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

The hacker has "not obtained the messages of cabinet members, Waltz," or other White House officials, said 404Media. But TeleMessage confirmed the hack and "worked quickly to contain it and engaged an external cybersecurity firm to support our investigation," the app's parent company, Smarsh, said in a statement. Out of an "abundance of caution, all TeleMessage services have been temporarily suspended."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

What is the White House connection?

The TeleMessage hack comes days after a "photograph of Mike Waltz, then the national security adviser, showed that he was using the application to read Signal messages on his phone," said The New York Times. The picture, taken by a Reuters photographer, depicted Waltz looking at what appeared to be the app while in a Cabinet meeting.

Experts raised issues over Waltz's use of TeleMessage due to potential security concerns surrounding encrypted messages. This also occurred after Waltz created a chat room on Signal to "discuss strikes on Houthi militants in Yemen, but inadvertently added a journalist from The Atlantic to the group," said the Times, which many believe may have contributed to Waltz's ousting as national security adviser.

Adding scrutiny to Waltz's use of TeleMessage during the Cabinet meeting is the fact that the photo "appeared to show chat logs on Waltz’s phone with Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among others," said CNN. Questions of TeleMessage's vulnerabilities have also been raised. Unlike Signal, which "automatically encrypts messages as they travel between users," the "details around TeleMessage's encryption and security protocols aren't fully clear," said NBC News.

Signal is "highly regarded by cybersecurity experts, but the federal government has specific systems and protocols for transmitting sensitive information and messages," said NBC. Using encrypted messages "poses a problem for officials subject to laws that require them to save their correspondence — creating a tension between the need for secrecy and archiving." TeleMessage previously had a message on its website that it was "conceived for just such a reason," said NBC, but this message no longer appears.

TeleMessage was "designed to capture the messages once they've been decrypted so they can be preserved and stored," said Reuters. That "functionality can be useful for complying with government rules on document retention but if poorly implemented it can introduce security risks."