Days after The Atlantic revealed that a journalist was mistakenly included in a highly sensitive Signal group chat with senior Trump administration officials, further security breaches have come to light.
According to an investigation by German news outlet DER SPIEGEL, private contact details of some of the most important U.S. national security officials can be easily found on the internet, raising significant cybersecurity concerns.
DER SPIEGEL report says that they were able to locate the mobile phone numbers, email addresses, and even some passwords belonging to National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. The data was obtained through commercial people search engines and previously leaked hacked customer data available on the web.
Many of these contact details remain active, with some linked to profiles on social media platforms such as Instagram and LinkedIn. Additionally, they were used to create accounts on services like Dropbox and fitness-tracking apps. Some of these phone numbers were also tied to active WhatsApp and Signal accounts, further intensifying security concerns.
This revelation exposes another grave security lapse at the highest levels of the U.S. government. Cybersecurity experts warn that hostile intelligence agencies could exploit this publicly available information to install spyware on the officials' devices and potentially access sensitive communications. Given that Gabbard, Waltz, and Hegseth were discussing military strike plans on Signal, it remains unclear whether their private phone numbers were linked to the accounts used for these discussions.
While Tulsi Gabbard has declined to comment, DER SPIEGEL report claims that her and Waltz’s publicly available phone numbers are associated with active Signal profiles. The investigation also found that Hegseth’s mobile number and email address were easily retrievable through a commercial data provider, often used by businesses for marketing and recruitment. The email address associated with his account appeared in over 20 publicly accessible data breaches, making it highly vulnerable to cyber threats.
Security experts caution that such exposed data can be used for phishing attacks, deepfake manipulation, and political blackmail. Donald Ortmann, a specialist in information security, warned that compromised accounts could enable hackers to infiltrate virtual meetings, install malware, and monitor sensitive communications.
To safeguard the officials’ privacy, DER SPIEGEL has opted not to publish the retrieved contact details or passwords. However, it has notified Gabbard, Hegseth, and Waltz of the findings. So far, no response has been received from the officials or the relevant government agencies, including the National Security Council and the Department of Defense.
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