Experts say Pentagon chief has endangered secrets of US defense department and given assistance to foreign spies
As more develops about the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and his repeated disclosures of sensitive military intelligence in unsecured Signal group chats, there are growing concerns his behavior has weakened the Pentagon in the eyes of its foreign adversaries and made him and his entourage a top espionage target.
Allies, already concerned by Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs, have also begun to see the US as an intelligence-sharing liability. There are fears that the mounting firings and leak inquiries in Hegseth’s orbit, along with his inability to manage these internal crises, exposes the entire global US war footing – especially, if a geopolitical and external crisis comes across his desk.
“[What if] a foreign entity, whether it be a state actor or non-state actor, is able to intercept the movements of troops or department personnel, or something like that, capture them and hold them to ransom,” said Kristofer Goldsmith, an Iraq war veteran and CEO at Task Force Butler. “That kind of thing could very easily happen.”
Not just Hesgeth.
The whole administration is comprised of conspiracy nuts and other big brains who will click on any crazy link they come across.
The Director of National Intelligence is a probable Russian asset. Also the President.
And let’s not forget Elon and his Doge bro minions. They’re destroying the security around every system they touch, firing the people responsible for that security, moving sensitive data out through starlink to God knows where, and apparently just giving logins to Russia.
Almost makes storing nuclear secrets in a bathroom seem quaint and wholesome by comparison.
This, and Elmo too
Espionage? They are giving it away lol
Seriously, these people are publicly making mistakes that my grandma would make. If there’s a best practice for safety and security, they actively don’t do it.
Come on down to Crazy Pete’s intel emporium! We’re practically giving this intel away!
Crazy Pete’s 😂
“[What if] a foreign entity, whether it be a state actor or non-state actor, is able to intercept the movements of troops or department personnel, or something like that, capture them and hold them to ransom,”
That’d be very swell, why do you ask?
If anyone learned anything from nepotism ever, it would stop happening but here we are.
If you think nepotism has anything to do with this…
I’d love to hear what you think nepotism is.
Hegseth getting the position in the first place
Who is the older relative that gave him that position?
That’s what nepotism is, and why I asked for you to define nepotism, so I could explain how you were wrong.
Which, to be honest I should have known wasn’t going to work.
Wow, you could have just corrected me instead of being a huge, pretentious asshole about it. I used the wrong word, my bad. I’ll go throw myself into a fire for it.
Don’t worry, definitely not helping you anymore, won’t even have a chance to.
Have fun with that
Obviously. Is there any point in history when the SecDef wasn’t one of the juiciest espionage targets in the world, regardless of who is filling the role at the time?
Ya, the headline is kinda bullshit. The SecDef is always going to be a top espionage target. The real problem is that, had anyone else who holds a security clearance been this slipshod with classified material, they would be in jail now. The two tiered nature for accountability for security violations demonstrates deep problems with the entire system.
Yeah but how many times could spies bribe the person in that role with a 6 pack? You could let him pick what he wants from the gas station beer case and he’d probably give you all his passwords.
Why bother? I’m sure for the right price it’s for sale. Might require a trip to the Mar-a-Lago bathroom though.
after the complimentary lunch of room-temperature big macs and fries, that won’t be a problem.
Well, only if Trump hasn’t already Xeroxed the classified papers already, himself, to sell for personal profit.
Unrelated, it’s crazy to me that Xerox has remained in the lexicon for so long.
it’s a REALLY fun word.
The guy is a moron. He’s clearly demonstrated that he has no concept of information security on multiple occasions. For more than a year, it has been known the Signal has a weakness that Russia and others have been exploiting.
It’s really pretty simple. The hackers send a phishing email or text to the target with a specially crafted QR code. If the user is dumb enough to scan the code, and we all know Hegseth is dumb enough, then the hacker’s device will from then on be linked with the target users device and get a copy of every message sent or received. There is no way in hell that Russia, China, and anyone else who wants to isn’t already getting all his Signal messages.
That’s not an exploit, that is a known and published and advertised feature of signal. That’s like when Grandma says her Facebook was hacked because she gave her username and password to MichaelSoft tech support. This is the level of profound fucking stupid that our Republican government has.
I never said it was an exploit. I said it was a weakness that was being exploited.
That’s not a Signal weakness. That’s profound user idiocy. It’s very clear what the “link a device” feature is for, and obviously linking someone else’s device would be very dumb.
if only there was a government agency, perhaps one tasked with national security even… that could provide the secure devices and software needed for high-ranking government workers and others working with sensitive information… and those workers actually used that gear and followed their training and policies.
Disagree. Every chat you are in should have a visible notification about how many linked devices are copied in the chat. The app is supposed to be about security, isn’t it? It’s a pretty big weakness in my opinion.
you mean show who’s in the chat?
I think they mean it should remind you which other devices you have linked, so that if you’re messaging on your phone you are reminded that your computer will also get a copy of the chat unless you unlink it.
That would be a helpful addition, and it sounds like it could be easily done.
It’s secure messaging for the average joe. Organizations can achieve this compliance with an MDM, but I’m not asking Grandma to install my MDM on her phone to see my Wordle results. And sharing your device list (plus, you’d likely need ip location for this feature to be useful, in addition to interrogating your friends about what devices they use) with any random person you’re messaging is arguably more of a security threat than the risk of some moron linking any random device that asks to be linked.
The other glaring weakness is that if you invite Putin to your group chat, Russia gets access to all of your messages!! /s (though, I guess it’s a real threat with this administration)
psst . . . starlink.
Earlier in the week, news broke that Hegseth had personally created a Signal group chat including his wife, brother and about a dozen other people who he then texted highly sensitive information on active strikes in Yemen… One person said Russian and Chinese spies were no doubt directly targeting susceptible people in Hegseth’s inner circle.
Even if, as I am sure he very wrongly does, Hegseth believes himself morally beyond reproach and too smart to be tricked, does he honestly think every single person in his circle and in their circles is as well? JFC.
I’m sure everyone in his circle are all using highly secure mobile devices not linked to their personal identities, on the latest software updates and would never be duped by a phishing link or be the target of a zero click exploit by a state actor.
Target, he’s the eye of the bull.
unsecured Signal group chats
As inappropriate, stupid and reckless as whisky Pete has been it’s not like he was using Facebook PMs or Twitter. Signal is quite secure in general.
Signal encryption is already targeted by Russians and Belarusians trying to compromise it. If it’s still secure, who knows for how long. Also, is Hegseth’s phone itself secure, and everyone has communicating with? Probably not. That is why these kinds of communications are not meant to take place over 3rd party software and on unsecured phones.
Signal encryption is already targeted by Russians and Belarusians trying to compromise it
So what? So is the NSA and everyone else in the world? You have no evidence that the could or have compromised it at all. Just baseless “oh but it may be compromised some day!”.
Put another way - Russians and Belorussians are also trying to hack the encryption used by your bank. WHO KNOWS HOW LONG THAT WILL REMAIN SAFE.
Also, is Hegseth’s phone itself secure, and everyone has communicating with?
This is the actual issue here - not Signal. Using a personal device with who-knows-what for hardening or even patch management is a significant problem.
You have no evidence that the could or have compromised it at all. Just baseless “oh but it may be compromised some day!”.
Yes, that is the point. I have no evidence, nor will I. When Russia hacks it successfully, they aren’t going to put out a press release and give everyone a grace period to move off the app before they start harvesting state secrets are they? You need to act like it is already compromised becuase you don’t know that it isn’t or when it inevitably will be.
Yes, that is the point. I have no evidence, nor will I.
🤦
There is no such thing as unbreakable encryption. It will be compromised at some point and you will not know when. To pretend otherwise is to asinine.
🤦
The amount of unqualified idiots being handed out security passes like halloween candy is unfathomable
I assumed it’s all part of the plan. He’s not going to face any consequences and the info is available to whoever wants it.
Signal leak Pete is a pretty good nickname
Leaky Pete!
DrinkiLeaks
Whiskeyleaks
Of course he is.
But also, foreign agents can literally just walk into the pisser at Mara-lago and find classified documents.
This administration has no interest in maintaining state secrets.
