Trump’s best assistant in the sign chat was in Russia while the text stream was active

• Steve Witkev’s special envoy was one of more than ten Trump administration members in the chat group chat discuss sensitive information that unintentionally included the Atlantic Editor -in -Chief Jeffrey Goldberg. While the text was active, Witkoff was at Russia’s meeting with President Vladimir Putin, according to aviation data, CBS I mentioned.

The site of a senior Trump administration’s website has sparked participation in the chat group, which unintentionally participated in the secret attack plans with another correspondent of the potential national security nightmare.

President Donald Trump was Ukraine and Middle East envoy, Steve Witkeov in Moscow, Russia, while the group chat was active, CBS I mentionedQuoting data from the aviation tracking site Flightradar24. It was scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a handful of other Russian officials During his journey From March 13 to 14.

Witkoff was one of about ten officials of the Trump administration active in a signal chat group called “Houthi PC Small Group” – which also included Atlantic Ocean Editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg-It appears to be sensitive information about the United States’s plan to bomb the Houthi goals in Yemen, the Atlantic Ocean I mentioned. The United States government has explicitly avoided using the signal to share classified information, warn of Russian piracy attempts and security delay.

A A real estate lawyer turned into a special envoyWittakov praised Putin as a “great” leader and met the Russian president to discuss ending the Russian war for three years with Ukraine.

It seems that the time Witkoff in Russia is intersecting with the detection of very sensitive information in the group chat. According to flight tracking information, Wittouf arrived in Moscow on March 13 around noon, CBS I mentioned. Putin met until around 1:30 am local time the next day, according to Post Telegram By former Putin Adviser Sergey Marcov. Atlantic Ocean The Director of the CIA, John Ratcliffe, the name of the active central intelligence agency in the text stream at approximately 5:24 pm, or around the middle of the night in Russia.

According to A copy of the texts Common before Atlantic OceanWitkoff did not participate in the chat even after the attack, when two expressive symbols were suspended from the prayer, the arm Emoji, and two American expressive symbols in response to the texts about the strikes that hit the intended targets.

White House press secretary Caroline Levitte said in A. Social media yet “Witkoff” was presented a safe line of communication by the United States government, and it was the only phone he was in possession of while he was in Moscow. Journalist On Wednesday, Levitte said that Witkeov had no personal phone or the government confiscated, and instead he got a device with “a protected servant classified by the United States government, and he was very keen on his communications when he was in Russia.”

The White House did not respond luckRequest to comment, although National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes told Atlantic Ocean The reference collection looks “authentic messages” and deals with how to add Goldberg to the series.

The United States warns the Russian security threat

Although the administration that works with the Kremlin, the Pentagon was evident in its concerns about cybersecurity regarding Russia, as it issued a note on March 18, with a warning of using the sign because the “weakness” was determined in the application, NPR I mentioned. The memo was issued days after the US attack and about a week after Goldberg appeared in the group chat.

The memo said: “Russian professional piracy groups are employing the features of” associated devices “to spy on encrypted conversations.”

Please note: The third -party correspondence applications (such as signaling) through an unspecified exercise policy/summons, but it has not been approved to process or store information that is not classified by the two years, continued.

The memorandum is a repetition of the policy of the United States government. In 2023, the Ministry of Defense issued a note Classification of “non -managed” correspondence applications, such as signal and WhatsApp, saying that it is “unauthorized to access, transfer, or process the non -public Ministry of Defense.”

The group also used a signal feature that disappears messages a week later, Atlantic Ocean I mentioned, some experts said the laws of public records. He told a former government security leader, who wanted to not be identified, previously luck It will be required of all group chat officials to maintain their communications records, and no official can determine whether their messages have done or did not apply to the laws of public records.

Security palaces

Despite the invitation to the Ministry of Defense as a weak correspondence platform, the true risk of safety does not come from the application, but from one phone, according to cybersecurity.

“The sign is one of the best applications there for comprehensive encryption and communication,” said Vs Subrahmanian, Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University and head of AI and the security laboratory, luck. “But the phones are not.”

Subrahmanian said, the Pentagon is likely to have a significant signal due to its popularity, which may make it a greater target for harmful programs, but there are safety risks for every download that has been downloaded on a personal device. When downloading an application, it may be benign, but then it is automatically updated using malware. Likewise, harmful programs on a personal phone can get content from everything on the individual screen, even if it is using an encrypted application. Instead, one of the ways to reduce the risk is to issue phones for employees who have a limited number of applications that have been completely examined.

Traveling with sensitive information on the phone focuses on the risk of safety. When anyone travels, he is at risk of installing harmful programs on his devices by connecting him to an outlet. Superhamanian explained that the rope can charge the device, but it can also transfer data.

“There is a known group of attacks called” Juice Jacking “that can use this rope,” said subrahmanian. “If she can download data, she can also download programs, including malware.”

Subrahmanian was away from calling the consequences of the disastrous messages, but it was clear that the application of the correspondence was not responsible for the safety of safety.

“This is not a failure of sign or signal technology,” he said. “It is just a human mistake.”

This story was originally shown on Fortune.com