One week before senior Trump administration officials used Signal to coordinate U.S. military strikes on Yemen, the Pentagon issued a department-wide advisory warning against using the app—even for unclassified information—due to known vulnerabilities.
The March 18 memo, obtained by NPR, stated that Russian hacking groups were exploiting Signal’s “linked devices” feature to spy on encrypted conversations. It advised personnel not to use third-party messaging apps, including Signal, for transmitting any non-public unclassified data.
Despite this, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other top national security officials used Signal to discuss sensitive military planning for airstrikes against Houthi rebels. The Atlantic‘s editor Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly added to the group chat, gaining access to discussions involving weapons, targets, and sequencing.
Signal spokesperson Jun Harada said the company was unaware of any unaddressed vulnerabilities.
The use of such apps in military operations violates existing Department of Defense policy, which since at least 2023 has barred mobile apps from handling even “controlled unclassified information.” Experts say the incident represents an extraordinary breakdown in protocol.
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