TeleMessage, a cloned version of encrypted messaging app Signal that’s modified to securely store messages for archiving purposes, has suspended service after a reported security incident, the parent company said Monday.
404 Media reported Sunday that a hacker had accessed sensitive internal materials stored in TeleMessage in as little as 20 minutes of effort, including contents tied to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
TeleMessage surged into public attention last week when a Reuters photograph appeared to show then-National Security Advisor Mike Waltz using the modified Signal clone during a cabinet meeting to chat with top officials, including Tulsi Gabbard and Marco Rubio.
Smarsh, the Oregon-based owner of TeleMessage, said Monday it was “investigating a potential security incident” and suspended its services out of an abundance of caution. DHS told Reuters that CBP “immediately disabled TeleMessage as a precautionary measure.”
Legal requirements for agencies to archive internal communications came to the forefront of staff discussions in the days following bombshell reporting from The Atlantic’s top editor that showed he was inadvertently added to a Signal group with top government officials discussing airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
Signal screenshots published by The Atlantic showed Waltz initially set messages to auto-delete after one week before later setting them to delete after four weeks. It triggered a lawsuit that argued the exchange involved official agency communications that require full preservation.
Waltz was ousted as national security advisor and nominated to serve as U.N. Ambassador a day after the Reuters photo was taken, following weeks of private backlash inside Trump’s circles for his actions related to the Signalgate scandal, as it came to be known, and other affairs.
Federal officials’ encrypted communications fall under the Federal Records Act and other open-records laws, even if those discussions are highly sensitive and may never be retrieved publicly. The National Archives and Records Administration also requires that encrypted electronic communications be transmitted to the agency for archiving in a decrypted form.
Following Signalgate, the White House and other Trump officials said that Signal comes pre-installed on certain devices in government, though sources familiar with government mobile device policies have said that assertion is inaccurate.
It’s also not clear how long Waltz and other officials may have been using TeleMessage. Government interest in chat archiving services skyrocketed after Signalgate, Nextgov/FCW previously reported.
The Trump administration “has and will continue to comply with all applicable record-keeping laws,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelley said in March.
