The data of some of US President ‘s closest advisers was reportedly found online by German news magazine Der Speigel.
This comes after the White House confirmed that Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of US magazine The Atlantic, had been added to a Signal group where
Emails, phone numbers, passwords
The Trump aides involved were national security advisor Mike Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whose mobile phone numbers, email addresses and, in some cases, passwords connected to their accounts at some point can be found through commercial data-search engines and hacked data widely available online.
Most of the email addresses and phone numbers found were current, with the numbers often being linked to social media accounts, as well as to accounts on messaging services such as WhatsApp and Signal.
According to a technical analysis by Der Spiegel, that the numbers were so widely available left the US officials exposed to spyware potentially being installed on their phones.
No comment received
The magazine also said it is conceivable that foreign intelligence services could even read the content sent by the Signal group members that discussed the airstrikes in Yemen. But if a foreign government was able to access a phone belonging to a US official, it would likely have access to more than any single group chat.
All three officials were made aware of the leaks. Der Spiegel also said it did not attempt to use any of the passwords to log in to any services.
While they did not respond to the magazine’s request for comment, the National Security Council said the Waltz accounts and passwords referenced by the German magazine had all been changed in 2019.
Edited by Sean Sinico
The post Top US officials’ personal data available online, report appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
