Top Trump officials already embroiled in the Signal ‘war plan’ debacle have now had their private data and passwords leaked.
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s private phone numbers, email addresses and even some passwords were ‘readily available online’, according to Der Spiegal.
The publication said most of the numbers and email addresses were still in use and actively sending and receiving as recently as a few days ago.
A WhatsApp account linked to the phone number for Hegseth still had his shirtless profile picture alongside his two children readily available, but the service had been newly deleted.
The leak comes as the trio – particularly Hegseth and Waltz – face intense scrutiny for accidentally adding a journalist to a Signal chat in which they were discussing sensitive plans to attack Houthi targets in Yemen.
These numbers and email addresses were ‘linked to profiles on social media platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn. They were used to create Dropbox accounts and profiles in apps that track running data,’ the publication stated.
‘There are also WhatsApp profiles for the respective phone numbers and even Signal accounts in some cases.’
According to the publication, most of the intel they received was readily available to the public on the internet, primarily through past dataleaks.
Commercial databases which are normally utilized by sales, marketing and recruitment firms were able to easily hand over Hegseth and Waltz’s Gmail address and mobile phone number.
A stunning 20 publicly accessible data leak servers had Hegseth’s data, the publication stated – including an email address and the password associated with it.
The publication claimed that the email address was last used just days ago, but they did not attempt to use the password to see if it was correct or still in use.
Using similar tactics, they found several of Waltz’s passwords, as well as his profiles for Signal, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp and LinkedIn.
Simultaneously, WIRED learned that Waltz had failed to properly secure his Venmo account, meaning his friends list was readily available for public viewing.
Among his 328 connections were high-profile political figures like Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles, as well as on-air personalities at both Fox and CNN.
But it was the revelation of his low-level connections, like several doctors, real estate agents and even a tailor, which are of most concern to security experts.
These are the people who are usually targeted for counter-intelligence operations, seen as ‘soft targets’ and a less obvious way to extract information that may not necessarily seem crucial but can point to patterns or private relationships.
‘The first thing you think of is the counterintelligence issue, right? And the security vulnerabilities. It kind of boggles the mind,’ former intelligence analyst Michael Ard told WIRED.
‘It would be really easy for somebody to spoof a contact, and that is something the security industry has already been issuing notices on.’
Gabbard’s email address was not as easy to track down as the other two, but was reportedly located on both WikiLeaks and in a Reddit thread.
A cellphone number publicly located for Gabbard linked to an active WhatsApp account and an active Signal account.
It is unclear if the Signal accounts the publication found are the same which were used in the embarrassing Houthi blunder.
‘Exposed data from top politicians can be used by hackers to launch convincing phishing attacks and gain access to devices and various services such as email, chat tools and PayPal,’ information security specialist Donald Ortmann told the publication.
Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe were subjected to a blistering attack by Democrats in Congress over the Signal slip-up.
At a hearing in front of the House Intelligence Committee, Democrats exploded on the pair of Trump officials.
Congressman Jim Himes told Gabbard and Ratcliffe that it was only by the ‘awesome grace of God that we are not mourning dead pilots right now.
And while Trump publicly lauded Waltz as a ‘good man’ who will continue to do a ‘good job’ in his role, insiders say behind the scenes, the 47th president wasn’t nearly so generous.
‘The president was p***ed that Waltz could be so stupid,’ a source told Politico.
Trump was said to be particularly furious that Waltz had Goldberg’s number in his phone, as the president has a particular distaste for the journalist.