The Secret Service of the US Department of Defense (DoD) has found its own procedures for protecting classified information to be inadequate, following a security breach known as Signalgate.
In March, Secretary Pete Hegseth was using the popular consumer messaging app Signal on his personal phone to communicate with other officials about a planned attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen. As a result, some sensitive details of this operation were inadvertently shared publicly.
The IG report stated that despite its own procedures for protecting classified information, the use of Signal by top military officials was deemed unwise due to the app's lack of security protocols and oversight mechanisms suitable for such communication.
Only one recommendation has been made in response to Signalgate - the chief of US Central Command's Special Security Office must review DoD's classification procedure rules to ensure compliance with regulations, as well as issue further procedures as needed.
In March, Secretary Pete Hegseth was using the popular consumer messaging app Signal on his personal phone to communicate with other officials about a planned attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen. As a result, some sensitive details of this operation were inadvertently shared publicly.
The IG report stated that despite its own procedures for protecting classified information, the use of Signal by top military officials was deemed unwise due to the app's lack of security protocols and oversight mechanisms suitable for such communication.
Only one recommendation has been made in response to Signalgate - the chief of US Central Command's Special Security Office must review DoD's classification procedure rules to ensure compliance with regulations, as well as issue further procedures as needed.
come on!!! how does a top military official like secretary hegeseth think its a good idea to use a messaging app that's basically a playground for hackers?!? I mean i get it, we need more secure comms but Signal just isn't cut out for the job 
. and what about all those other high-ranking officials who might have been affected by this breach?? gotta take responsibility here 
. I'm not saying the DoD's got a huge problem with security or anything, but come on people! use some common sense and choose apps that can actually keep your stuff private 
It's crazy that the Secret Service found their own procedures to be inadequate after a security breach like Signalgate 
I think it's high time they step up their game and come up with some real solutions, not just a one-person review of their rules 
and the fact that Sec Def is using it on his personal phone is just rediculous 
i mean i get it, Signal is all cool and trendy but when ur dealing with classified info u gotta be more careful 
how did they mess up like signal is literally super secure 
i mean i get the need for secrecy but come on! 
basically just throwing away security protocols left and right 
what's next? using whatsapp to brief emps about sensitive ops 
can't believe they used signal for classified info like that! i mean i know it's not the end of the world but still top secret info is at risk 
gotta be more careful with sensitive stuff. and now they're just gonna review their procedures? seems like a big oversight to me 
, might wanna rethink this whole strategy ASAP 
. It's a bit disconcerting that only one recommendation has been proposed in response to Signalgate - reviewing classification procedures seems like a necessary step, but it may not be enough to prevent similar incidents in the future 
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This is a big deal, you know? I mean, who uses Signal for work? Even I wouldn't use it for sensitive stuff 
They're taking steps to fix things and make sure this kind of mishap doesn't happen again. Reviewing their classification rules is a great idea - that's gotta help ensure top-secret stuff stays where it belongs. 
. It's all about growing and improving, right? I'm actually kinda excited that they're taking this as a chance to fine-tune their procedures. That shows they're committed to doing things better in the future 
Not sure what's more concerning, the breach itself or how they thought using Signal was a good idea in the first place 
. Maybe this is just an opportunity for them to re-evaluate their protocols and get it right next time 
what a disaster 
It's not exactly rocket science. They're basically broadcasting sensitive info to the world and expecting no one to listen in 
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... what's next? Are our military secrets going to be leaked left and right? 
. This is not a joke 
. And what really gets me is that it's not a big deal for some officials, but the security breach was still serious enough to make headlines 
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. Reviewing their classification procedure rules sounds like a good starting point, but it should be more than that - we need some concrete changes to prevent something like this from happening again 
. But seriously, using Signal to discuss military operations? That's just...interesting 
I mean, come on, if someone's gonna make a big deal out of this, it should be about updating their procedures and stuff, not just telling one person to review some rules 
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. It feels like they're just patching up the same old holes instead of actually taking a hard look at their procedures and making real changes 
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. I mean, we all know how vulnerable those things can be to hacking attempts. The fact that they didn't have the right security measures in place is super concerning 
But seriously, this should've been done a looong time ago. We can't trust our top officials to keep sensitive info under wraps if they're not even using secure apps 
The fact that they only recommend reviewing the classification procedures is basically just patching holes instead of fixing the problem entirely. What's next?