Passwords, other info from top Trump officials in Signal leak found floating online
Der Spiegel digs up phone numbers, email addresses and more belonging to national security adviser Michael Waltz, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and intel chief Tulsi Gabbard
The private contact information of three senior Trump administration officials has been found available online by a German newspaper, adding to concerns about the security of sensitive information after plans for a strike in Yemen were shared over a commercial message app and inadvertently shared with a journalist.
In a Wednesday report, Der Spiegel said it was able to retrieve cell phone numbers, email addresses, and some passwords of US national security adviser Mike Waltz, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, all of whom have come under fire for their roles in the Yemen leak.
The information was found using commercial data-search services and information from hackers posted online. Sales, marketing and recruitment companies use such services to obtain data.
Der Spiegel assessed that most of the accounts and numbers were likely still being used by the officials, at least until recently.
The paper did not publish any of the information but gave detailed descriptions of why they appeared to be authentic, including profile photos. It also did not try to use any of the passwords.
Among the passwords were those for email accounts and other services such as Instagram, LinkedIn profiles, cloud-storage service Dropbox, and apps that can track a user’s location.
Hegseth’s cell phone number and email address were “particularly easy” to find, with the email address showing up in over 20 data leaks, in some cases along with the password.
The number was associated with a WhatsApp account that had apparently been recently deleted, the report said.
The same provider was able to come up with Waltz’s phone number which was reportedly available on a people search engine that acts like an online phone directory. Der Spiegel also found several passwords to Waltz’s email address.
Gabbard had apparently blocked her contact details on commercial search engines, the report said, but the information was found in data leaks dumped by hackers.
The Gabbard and Waltz numbers were tied to accounts on the messaging services WhatsApp and Signal, which Der Spiegel said made them possible targets for spyware.
The US Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the NSC said Waltz’s passwords and accounts had been changed before he joined Congress in 2019.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said Gabbard’s information was leaked nearly 10 years ago and she has not used those accounts for several years and has frequently changed her passwords.
Waltz and Hegseth are both at the center of a swirling scandal that has engulfed Washington this week surrounding a discussion held over encrypted commercial messaging service Signal about plans to attack Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The use of the chat, which may have broken secrecy laws and other protocols, came to light after Waltz accidentally added Atlantic magazine editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the group, which also included Gabbard, Vice President J.D. Vance and other top officials.
The conversations discussed schedules, weapons, and aircraft that were used on March 15 as the US launched a military campaign against the Iran-backed group.
The chat about attacks on Iran-backed Houthi rebels involved some of the administration’s most senior officials, including Hegseth, Waltz, and Gabbard.
Hegseth and Gabbard have claimed that no classified or sensitive materials were discussed, while US President Donald Trump has called the incident a “glitch.”
US officials are generally instructed to discuss sensitive matters in a specially protected space called a SCIF, due to spying concerns. While Signal contains encryption, it is open to all, including hackers, unlike most US government systems.
The Houthi rebels, who have controlled much of Yemen for more than a decade, are part of the “axis of resistance” of pro-Iran groups staunchly opposed to Israel and the United States.
The Times of Israel Community.