
Signal Group Chat Fiasco Is Far From The Only Digital Security Issue For Trump White House
HuffPost
A German news website said it was "particularly easy" to obtain Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth's private contact information.
As the White House continues to contend with the fallout of the Signal group chat controversy, more details are coming out about other security breaches exposing the private contact data of senior members of President Donald Trump’s administration.
German outlet Der Spiegel reported on Wednesday that it was able to recover phone numbers, email addresses and in some cases passwords for accounts belonging to national security adviser Mike Waltz, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard from commercial databases and password leaks available online.
The outlet noted it was “particularly easy” to obtain Hegseth’s contact information. Der Spiegel received the number and email address connected to Hegseth’s LinkedIn account through a commercial provider, and subsequently found that email, and in some instances its password, in more than 20 available leaks.
“Using publicly available information, it was possible to verify that the email address was used just a few days ago,” Der Spiegel said.
Similarly, the German news website was also able to obtain Waltz’s number and email, and then match it to accounts on Microsoft Teams, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Signal. After the outlet contacted Waltz on WhatsApp and Signal, both accounts appeared to go dark.