Analysis: U.S. Administration Leaks Secret War Plans on Signal App

TaiwanPlus News

Recorded Future intelligence analyst Allan Liska joins TaiwanPlus News to discuss the risks around high level U.S. officials leaking military operation plans while using a commercially encrypted messaging app.

Transcript

00:00This story really starts with government officials using a commercial app

00:05opposed to a secure government-developed app.

00:08What are the risks that these officials are taking when they're using Signal to communicate what is perceptively classified information?

00:16So there are a few things that are concerning with this. One is

00:20that we don't know if this was on government-issued devices or personal devices and

00:26obviously your personal devices are much more susceptible to

00:30attacks and every person who was on that text chain is a target. So even if

00:37Signal isn't compromised,

00:39their personal devices could be and everything that's on those devices could be flowing off into

00:46you know, into enemy hands. But the other thing is, at least in the US, there are records requirements that

00:54all

00:55military operations have to follow and Signal is, as secure as Signal is, it doesn't meet the demands of those record

01:03requirements. So,

01:04you know, that means that conversations are having, are in place that aren't

01:10necessarily going to be recorded the way they should and and that information, the information that's being shared, is

01:17government property.

01:19So, just like any other military operation, the information being shared there is

01:23government property and now there's no record of what was being said or what why decisions were made.

01:29So, have there been incidences of other

01:31information with that, while still sensitive, is lower level,

01:35but it's still leaked on these messaging apps such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, apps that would not be considered

01:43secure for sensitive information communication.

01:45I mean, absolutely. I mean, even inadvertently, you know, we've seen the stories repeatedly about how you can track

01:53secret military bases by people going running with their fitness watches

02:00and, you know, uploading the information from there, you know, from those watches

02:04to the cloud and then suddenly that's

02:07available for everybody to see. So, there are all kinds of things that happen and it shouldn't, but it definitely happens.

02:15And, you know, in sometimes in a battlefield or in an emergency situation,

02:20you don't have any choice to do this. So, in the current cyber warfare environment,

02:24we're seeing more advanced attacks and, like you said, each person on this communications chain has a device that could potentially be at risk.

02:32What steps do, say, Taiwanese or U.S. officials need to take to ensure that

02:38these mistakes don't happen again and that sensitive information stays secure?

02:42So, communication should always be done on authorized government devices and

02:48those government devices should be constantly going through audits, looking for malware, looking for intrusions,

02:54looking for the types of access that we worry about. So, that's the first thing.

03:02Again, sometimes that's not going to be the case. There are

03:06exceptions where you may have to use your personal device in a field or whatever.

03:11And in cases like that, there should be strict guidelines from government offices about

03:19how and when that can be used and what level of information would be shared. We never wanted to disrupt military operations

03:27or slow them down because of regulations, but we always have to make sure you're being secure.

03:35It doesn't do you any good if you feel like you have to use your personal device in the battlefield and you're just sharing everything

03:42that you're sending to other people in the field with an enemy combatant and

03:47that could literally be happening in any of these cases.

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