The president of Signal defended the security of the encrypted messaging app on Tuesday after a bombshell report revealed top Trump administration officials used the app to discuss airstrike plans hours before they took place.
In a lengthy post on the social platform X on Tuesday night, Signal President Meredith Whittaker called the app the “gold standard in private comms” without directly mentioning the ongoing controversy over the officials’ group chat.
“We’re open source, nonprofit, and we develop and apply e2ee [end-to-end encryption] and privacy preserving tech across our system to protect metadata and message contents,” Whittaker wrote. “Check out <signal dot org slash bigbrother> to see just how little data we are able to provide in response to the subpoenas we’re not able to resist.”
A spotlight was put on Signal earlier this week after The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, revealed he was invited to a group chat on Signal earlier this month by national security adviser Mike Waltz.
According to Goldberg, top security officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President Vance, discussed plans for airstrikes on Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen hours before they were launched.
The report prompted a flurry of questions over whether the officials were approved to be using Signal, or whether they were using the messaging service on official government phones or laptops.
Signal offers end-to-end-encryption, meaning information about users’ private conversations is not shared with the technology company. But cybersecurity experts warned the third-party system could still present risks and does not account for lapses in device or network security.
Amid these concerns, the official X account for Signal sought to quell what it described as misinformation about the app.
“One piece of misinfo we need to address is the claim that there are ‘vulnerabilities’ in Signal,” the company account wrote Tuesday evening on X. “This isn’t accurate.”
The company pointed to a report from NPR on a Pentagon memo sent last week warning against using the messaging app. It is unclear whether the memo was related to the group chat, as it was released days before Goldberg’s report.
“Reporting on a Pentagon advisory memo appears to be at the heart of the misunderstanding: ….The memo used the term ‘vulnerability’ in relation to Signal — but it had nothing to do with Signal’s core tech. It was warning against phishing scams targeting Signal users,” the Signal account wrote.
“Phishing isn’t new, and it’s not a flaw in our encryption or any of Signal’s underlying technology. Phishing attacks are a constant threat for popular apps and websites,” it continued.
The company went on to tout the features it introduced in recent months to prevent phishing attacks.
“Signal is open source, so our code is regularly scrutinized in addition to regular formal audits,” the company wrote. “We also constantly monitor [email protected] for any new reports, and we act on them with quickness while also working to protect the people who rely on us from outside threats like phishing with warnings and safeguards.”
White House counselor Alina Habba told reporters on Wednesday that administration officials are “allowed to use Signal for top-level official communications.”
“We also have other means of communications that were used,” she added.
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