"While the Department remains committed to transparency, the Department is equally obligated to protect CSNI (#classified #intelligence) & sensitive information - the unauthorized disclosure of which could put the lives of US Service members in danger," #Hegseth said in a memo.

[laughable coming from a guy involved in the PC Houthi group chat & also a chat that included his wife & brother both of which divulged classified military operations over a commercial app. #Signalgate]

A week after that #hack, the #CISA recommended that users "discontinue use of the product" barring any mitigating instructions about how to use the app from #Smarsh.

Jake Williams, a fmr #NationalSecurity Agency #cyber specialist, said that, even if the intercepted text messages were innocuous, the wealth of #metadata - the who & when of the #leaked conversations & chat groups - posed a #counterintelligence risk.

A #CBP spox repeated a past stmnt noting that it had disabled #TeleMessage & was investigating.

Federal contracting data shows that #State & #DHS have had contracts w/TeleMessage in recent years, as has the #CDC. A CDC spox told Reuters in an email that the agency piloted the software in 2024 to assess its potential for records management requirements "but found it did not fit our needs." The status of the other contracts wasn't clear.

Reuters could not ascertain how #TeleMessage had been used by each agency. The service - which takes versions of popular apps & allows their messages to be archived in line w/government rules - has been suspended since May 5, when it went offline "out of an abundance of caution." TeleMessage's owner, the Portland, Oregon-based digital communications firm #Smarsh, did not respond to requests for comments about the #leaked #data.

Some chats did seem to bear on the travel plans of snr govt ofcls. One #Signal group, "POTUS | ROME-VATICAN | PRESS GC," appeared to pertain to the #logistics of an event involving #Trump at the #Vatican. Another appeared to discuss US ofcls' trip to #Jordan.

Reuters reached out to all the individuals it could identify seeking comment; some confirmed their identities but most didn't respond or referred questions to their respective agencies.

One of the intercepted texts' recipients - an applicant for aid from #FEMA confirmed to Reuters that the #leaked message was authentic; a financial services firm whose messages were similarly intercepted also confirmed their authenticity.

Based on its limited review, Reuters uncovered nothing that seemed clearly sensitive & did not uncover chats by #MikeWaltz or other cabinet ofcls.