How the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg Got Added to the White House Signal Chat

&gt; According to the White House, the number was erroneously saved during a “contact suggestion update” by Waltz’s iPhone, which one person described as the function where an iPhone algorithm adds a previously unknown number to an existing contact that it detects may be related.<p>Politics aside, these auto-suggestions are a landmine in business contexts and should be disabled by IT where possible. Sometimes I&#x27;ll be sending emails including both my client and internal team and the lawyers for the other side. The phone will decade that these email addresses are related in some way. So next time I want to send an internal strategy email to my client and the team, the app will helpfully suggest copying opposing counsel. Not great.

&gt; According to the White House, the number was erroneously saved during a “contact suggestion update” by Waltz’s iPhone, which one person described as the function where an iPhone algorithm adds a previously unknown number to an existing contact that it detects may be related.<p>It&#x27;s interesting that this was the cause. I&#x27;m sure we all have our own stories of how UI&#x2F;UX niggles (regardless of platform or app) have led to unintended behavior.<p>While I understand automatic suggestions can be helpful at times, when the UX doesn&#x27;t clearly identify the cues that lead to the suggestion, with a way for a human to confirm it, this type of error is a likely result.

Surely the real question is why they were using Signal, rather than a secure government network?

“… after he mistakenly saved his number months before under the contact of someone else he intended to add.”<p>This is precisely why the government has its own very inconvenient devices and network, which cannot possibly fall victim to the same completely understandable human error. Had the team been using secure devices on the secure network, no journalist would ever have been accidentally added to the chat.<p>That these people are in charge of national security is beyond ridiculous. It speaks volumes about the unprecedented political setup we find ourselves in that such frankly inexperienced and naive people are in charge after Senate confirmations that were intended to protect us all from such a mistake.

This is a great explanation for why they should be keeping these conversations on systems that are designed for handling classified information and have controls to prevent adding a random person to the conversation.

It&#x27;s interesting and funny from a tech perspective that auto-suggestions on iPhone got him.<p>It&#x27;s also proof that 1) security processes are important for a reason and 2) don&#x27;t discuss information you don&#x27;t want getting out on a consumer device (or really on any internet connected device) and 3) these guys&#x27; plan of using signal to avoid record keeping was foolish and stupid, more than just because of their silly fear that Democrats would release their records (that would require Democrats growing a spine).

I don’t see how this “clears” Waltz.<p>For one thing, as far as I know, the iphone doesn’t attach phone numbers to contacts automatically, it just asks. The article claims the iphone did it, but I think Waltz must have.<p>Also, this why you don’t use a random group chat app for national security conversations. Your general app is designed for engagement which includes building out the social network. Of course it’s going to err on the side of inclusion, when here you want to err on the side of exclusion.<p>For national security, contact info would be vetted, verified, and strictly up-to-date. There would be multiple guards that would prevent a thoughtless tap months earlier from leading to the wrong person being given national security information.<p>It sure is frightening that these bozos are in charge of things that have high stakes.

Or Waltz has been leaking to Goldberg and every other journalist in his contacts and did it by accident.

Sub headline in the link says investigation &quot;cleared&quot; Waltz. When of course, what actually happened is that the investigation showed how extremely reckless negligent and careless Waltz was. I wish the guardian was more explicit about how nonsense this government propaganda is about this incident.

&quot;But Trump decided against firing him in large part because he did not want the Atlantic and the news media more broadly to have the satisfaction of forcing the ouster of a top cabinet official weeks into his second term.&quot;<p>That&#x27;s about Michael Waltz. The decision is based not on whether Waltz revealed classified info, but about appearances. Seems dangerous to make decisions this way.

They said Waltz had been &quot;cleared of wrongdoing&quot; and yet<p>&gt; Donald Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz included a journalist in the Signal group chat about plans for US strikes in Yemen after he mistakenly saved his number months before under the contact of someone else he intended to add, according to three people briefed on the matter.<p>That <i>clears</i> him? That should implicate him!

Anyone remember being told Signal was an unsecured app and not to use it?<p>Rules for thee but not for me. Pepperidge farm remembers.

Is this comparable to Hilary Clinton’s email issue out of interest? (not American so only have a passing familiarity with much of this)

The information that Hegseth shared shouldn&#x27;t have been shared regardless of whether the app was secure, and regardless of whether Jeff was there. Nobody in that chat needed to know those details, he was just showing off like the insecure dilletante he is.

&quot;because the White House had authorized the use of Signal, largely because there is no alternative platform to text in real time across different agencies, two people familiar with the matter said.<p>Previous administrations, including the Biden White House, did not develop an alternative platform to Signal, one of the people said.&quot;<p>Is that true? There is no alternative platform to text in real time across different agencies? And nobody had a problem with that?

This is part of the reason I don&#x27;t keep contacts on my iPhone anymore.

If only there were information systems that supported the discussion of classified information without the risk of including a random contact.

&gt; Waltz also appears to have also engendered some sympathy from inside Trump’s orbit over the group chat because the White House had authorized the use of Signal, largely because there is no alternative platform to text in real time across different agencies, two people familiar with the matter said.<p>- No alternative platform: Presumably on purpose. If it were a good security practice to text this type of information in real time across existential-level national-security agencies by using multiple private vendors (e.g., Apple, Signal, AT&amp;T, Verizon, …), I&#x27;ll go out on a limb to guess that the government would have implemented that idea before 2025.

&quot;Look, forget the myths the media&#x27;s created about the White House--the truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.&quot; --from All the President&#x27;s Men<p>That was over 50 years ago, and now no one over a 90 IQ thinks these guys are bright.

The higher level story here is that the US government is simply unable to build software. You’ll notice that over the last 10 years there have been classified records scandals from politicians of both parties: it’s because the US government doesn’t have any communications tools even 1% as usable as anything from the iOS App Store.

How does the Guardian have such intimate details of a forensic investigation at the White House level and in the same breath claim that unauthorized access to non public information is a threat to national security ?<p>It makes no sense for the media on one side of the political spectrum to claim the right to unfettered access to secrets.