Hack Exposes National Secrets - Trump's Team's Chats Leaked! 💥
Trump's Secret Messaging System Breached: Unauthorized Access Revealed - Trump's personal conversation channel accessed illegally - unauthorized intrusion into Trump's messenger account.
By Malte Mansholt 🕒 2 Min Read
The chats of Donald Trump's administration are once again grabbing headlines, but this time it's not due to a blunder like the last time. A shadowy hacker has spilled the beans, revealing that many more people might have been snooping on the top-secret discussions.
According to investigative portal 404 Media, the hacker succeeded in hacking a special messenger used by governments and businesses, with Trump's admin included. The unnamed hacker managed to swipe phone numbers and intercept supposedly encrypted chat messages.
Easy Peasy - Hack Took Just 15 Minutes 🕒!
The messenger in question is Telmessage, a lesser-known Israeli company that modifies popular apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, and WeChat for governments and businesses. The target of the attack was Telmessage's version of the allegedly secure messenger Signal, which made headlines recently because Trump's team was using it.
The hacker, who stumbled upon Telmessage through media reports, found the attack surprisingly straightforward. "I'd say it took about 15 to 20 minutes," they admitted to 404 Media. The hacker emphasized that they were simply curious about the security of Telmessage.
Security Feature Gone Wrong!
The entry point was a feature that was advertised as making Telmessage appealing to governments: While Signal is known for its extremely secure end-to-end encryption of chats, it can be challenging to provide documentation of the conversations. Telmessage, on the other hand, offers exactly this: the messenger works like a charm but automatically archives all chats in plain text. This, however, proved to be a grave oversight.
Though a hacker can only tap into Signal chats if they have access to one of the devices, the Telmessage hacker simply attacked the servers with the archived files and found a treasure trove: not only were the chat logs unencrypted, but so were contact details and even login credentials. 404 Media verified the data provided by the hacker, which included chats and phone numbers of government agencies, a bank, and even the Washington D.C. police.
Trump's Team Under Renewed Scrutiny
Though the data did not include information from Trump's administration, the hacker did not necessarily target them. They stated, "I just wanted to test the security." However, it is known that Trump's team uses Telmessage: former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz was spotted using the app, and his visible chats included conversations with Vice President J.D. Vance and the National Intelligence Chief Tulsi Gabbard.
The hacker is rightfully alarmed. "Who knows how long they've been vulnerable like this?" they worry. Such gaps in supposedly secure systems could pique the interest of numerous hacker groups worldwide, who might exploit such weaknesses. The hacker believes that Telmessage's high security was not that high. "If I could find this in less than 30 minutes, anyone else could too."
Mike Waltz was dismissed from his role as National Security Advisor last week, but it's unclear whether this was related to 404 Media's request to the White House.
Sources: 404 Media, NBC
- Donald Trump
- Mike Waltz
- Hack
- Telmessage
- The leaked chats of Donald Trump's administration have once again made headlines, this time due to a hack carried out by an unnamed hacker.
- The hacker, who found the attack on Telmessage surprisingly straightforward and took only 15 to 20 minutes, managed to intercept encrypted chat messages and swipe phone numbers.
- Goldberg's investigation into the hack reveals that Telmessage, a lesser-known Israeli company, modifies popular apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, and WeChat for governments and businesses, including Trump's administration.
- The entry point for the hack was a feature of Telmessage that automatically archives all chats in plain text, which proved to be a grave oversight and allowed the hacker to gain access to unencrypted chat logs, contact details, and even login credentials.
- The hack has put Trump's team under renewed scrutiny, as it is known that former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and other key figures were using Telmessage. The hacker believes that such gaps in supposedly secure systems could be of interest to numerous hacker groups worldwide.
