THE communications application used by the former United States President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, has announced the suspension of its services after a reported hack exposed some of its messages.
Smarsh, a Portland, Oregon-based company that operates the TeleMessage app, revealed this on Monday, May 5, in an email that it is “investigating a potential security incident” and has suspended all its services “out of an abundance of caution.”
The ICIR reports that Smarsh did not provide more details about the breach.
In an email, the Department of Homeland Security said that the United States Customs and Border Protection agency said it had “promptly disabled TeleMessage as a precautionary step.”
“The investigation into the scope of the breach is ongoing,” it said.
A Reuters photograph showed Waltz using TeleMessage, an unofficial version of the popular encrypted messaging app Signal, on his phone during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday last week.
Waltz was removed from his position the next day, ending weeks of controversy surrounding his creation of a Signal group to share real-time updates on US military operations in Yemen.
The chat attracted significant attention after Waltz, or someone using his account, mistakenly added a prominent journalist to the group.
Concerns about the security of Waltz’s communications grew when it was reported on Sunday, May 4, that a hacker had infiltrated TeleMessage’s backend infrastructure and intercepted some of its users’ messages.
Tech news site 404 Media reported that the hacker had provided them with stolen material, some of which the site was able to independently verify.
The ICIR reported that President Trump dismissed Waltz on Thursday, May 1, and appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio as his interim replacement.
Sources said Trump had decided to remove Waltz from his position after becoming entangled in a March scandal involving a Signal chat among senior Trump national security officials.
The ICIR also reported that United States Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, after reports that he repeatedly shared details of a March attack on Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis in a signal message group.
Hegseth shared details of a March attack on Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis in a separate signal group chat that included his wife, brother, and personal lawyer, Reuters reported on Sunday, April 20.
However, Trump has expressed his support for Hegseth despite repeatedly sharing details of a March attack in the same Signal message group.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues.