A hacker was able to hack and obtain data from TeleMessage, a little-known Israeli company that supplies US government agencies with modified versions of Signal and other encrypted messengers for archiving messages, 404 Media reports.
The data stolen by the hacker includes some direct messages and group chats sent using a Signal clone, as well as modified versions of WhatsApp, Telegram, and WeChat. TeleMessage recently found itself at the center of a scandal after Mike Waltz accidentally revealed that he used the tool in a cabinet meeting with President Trump.
TeleMessage's Signal clone was designed to intercept copies of end-to-end encrypted messages and forward them to a central archiving server. However, the hack revealed that the saved chat logs were being transmitted without support for true end-to-end encryption. The hacker gained access to the TeleMessage admin panel in about 15–20 minutes using credentials found in the intercepted data fragments.
Screenshots and excerpts of messages obtained by 404 Media indicate that the attacker penetrated the archives of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the crypto exchange Coinbase, several financial institutions, and other agencies.
The hack also revealed that TeleMessage was used by top Trump administration officials, with Waltz’s chats on the app including recipients like Marco Rubio, Tulsi Gabbard, and J.D. Vance. The app also contained serious vulnerabilities that allowed a hacker to easily access archived chats from some of the people who used the same tool. The hacker didn’t get messages from cabinet members, Waltz, or the people he was communicating with, but the hack showed that the archived chat logs weren’t end-to-end encrypted between the modified version of the messaging app and the archive’s final destination, controlled by TeleMessage.
The hacker said the breach was fairly simple once he discovered the TeleMessage server on Amazon Web Services in Northern Virginia. A representative for Smarsh, TeleMessage's parent company, did not respond to requests for comment.
The Signal team reminded us that they cannot guarantee the security of unofficial versions of their messenger. A White House representative previously confirmed that Signal is approved for government use, but did not comment on the TeleMessage modifications.