Donald Trump's Cybersecurity Officials Are Stunned By Signal Leak

Forbes

CISA staff tell Forbes they’re stunned by the leak, amid calls for heads to roll.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2025/03/25/cisa-staff-stunned-at-trump-admins-signal-leak/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, someone should be in jail.

00:04Trump's cybersecurity officials stunned by signal leak.

00:09The stunning news that a journalist was accidentally included on a signal chat

00:13where Trump defense and intelligence officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance

00:18and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, discussed U.S. military strikes in Yemen

00:23has shocked the cybersecurity community, including staff in Trump's own administration.

00:29One official at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA,

00:34the Department of Homeland Security's digital safety arm,

00:37said that the leak was, quote, absolutely ridiculous on so many levels.

00:42The CISA official told Forbes, quote,

00:44they are discussing classified material on an unsanctioned platform,

00:48which should result in someone being in jail.

00:52Such discussions should only happen on a government phone

00:55in a sensitive compartmentalized information facility known as a SCIF,

01:00which are designed to be secure from outside interference under a 2009 executive order.

01:05Mishandling classified information is a potential breach of the Espionage Act.

01:10The official continued, quote,

01:12individuals in this administration think they are playing James Bond,

01:15but they have the skills of a Dr. Evil.

01:19Another CISA staffer told Forbes that Signal is not an officially sanctioned app

01:23for coordinating government operations,

01:25though CISA has recommended it for at-risk officials for private communications.

01:30They said, quote,

01:31Signal is great. It's how it's used is where the problem lies.

01:36If Hegseth and crew were using Signal on their personal devices,

01:39which are unlikely to have the same level of security as government-monitored phones,

01:43it's more likely hackers could have broken in and are able to spy on their chats.

01:48The staffer said, quote,

01:50Discussing classified intelligence over personal devices is terrible.

01:55Worse, Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported in a widely discussed story

02:00about how he'd been added to the sensitive chat

02:03that messages in the chat were set to auto-delete after four weeks.

02:07That ostensibly violates government retention laws,

02:10which require that official records be maintained for either freedom of information requests

02:15or for future hearings or inquiries.

02:17How long depends on the kind of information.

02:20If it's deemed of, quote, permanent value,

02:23the information should be maintained indefinitely.

02:26On Monday, 14 senators, including Elizabeth Warren, Tim Kaine, and Cory Booker,

02:31wrote to President Trump to note that the fact that messages were set to disappear on the Signal chat

02:37was a violation of the Presidential Records Act, quote,

02:40a further egregious breach of public trust.

02:44One of the CISA staffers told Forbes that using Signal to avoid government retention laws

02:49would have been reason enough to remove those implicated from office entirely in previous administrations.

02:55Todd Beardsley, a CISA staffer until he departed in January,

02:59added that this appeared to be, quote, a pretty serious security breach.

03:04And that's all before you consider the fact that a journalist was somehow added to the Signal chat

03:09without anyone knowing who he was or why he was there.

03:13Beardsley added, quote,

03:27It's worth pointing out that Trump officials in the chat, like Hegseth,

03:31had previously called for Hillary Clinton to go to jail after her emails were leaked from a private server.

03:37According to Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg's account,

03:40he was invited to the chat by an account that looks to belong to national security adviser Michael Waltz.

03:46Other officials who appeared to have been on the Signal channel alongside Vance and Hegseth

03:50were Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump adviser Stephen Miller,

03:55Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Whitkoff,

03:58White House Chief of Staff Suzy Wiles,

04:00and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

04:04In the leaked chat, Hegseth talked up his own personal security skills,

04:08instructing the group to prevent a leak of information about any possible pause on strikes against Houthis,

04:13writing, quote,

04:20But Goldberg was already in the chat.

04:24For full coverage, check out Thomas Brewster's piece on Forbes.com.

04:29This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

04:38Thanks for watching.

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