Two weeks ago, The Atlantic‘s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported that national security advisor Michael Waltz had accidentally added him to a Signal group chat used by U.S. government officials planning to bomb Yemen. Now we may finally know how it happened.
An internal White House investigation has determined that the Signalgate scandal was at least partially facilitated by a feature on Waltz’s iPhone, according to The Guardian. Specifically, it was the iPhone’s ability to detect a phone number in a text, algorithmically evaluate who it’s likely to belong to, and suggest that a user add it to the relevant existing contact in their address book.
Waltz and staff reportedly used Gmail for official U.S. government business, raising security issues
The Guardian reports that Waltz came to have Goldberg’s number last October, after the reporter sought comment from Trump’s presidential campaign for a story. Goldberg’s emailed inquiry was forwarded to Trump spokesperson Brian Hughes, who copied and pasted its contents into a text message to Waltz — including Goldberg’s email signature. Of course, this included Goldberg’s phone number.
Waltz didn’t end up calling Goldberg at the time. However, he did save the reporter’s number in his iPhone under Hughes’ name. He apparently did so at his iPhone’s suggestion, after its algorithm erroneously concluded that Goldberg’s number belonged to Hughes.
After that, it was really only a matter of time before things went wrong. So it seems that when Waltz attempted to add Hughes to the Yemen bombing Signal group chat in March, he inadvertently added Goldberg instead, making the reporter privy to sensitive military information. The significant security blunder called the Trump administration’s digital security practices into question, with other breaches quickly discovered within days.
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Waltz likely feels at least partially vindicated by the White House’s findings. Speaking to Fox News the day after The Atlantic published Goldberg’s article, Waltz claimed that he had no idea how the reporter’s number came to be in his phone, and speculated that “somehow it [got] sucked in.”
Even so, contact update suggestions are mere suggestions. It’s always up to users to check that the information is correct, as well as whether to apply the changes or not. In this case, it appears that Waltz simply accepted his iPhone’s suggestion without checking the number.
Mashable was unable to trigger an iPhone contact information update suggestion in our own testing, and has reached out to Apple for comment.
In response to Waltz’ comments to Fox News, Goldberg told NBC News, “[T]his isn’t The Matrix. Phone numbers don’t just get sucked into other phones. I don’t know what he’s talking about there. My phone number was in his phone because my phone number is in his phone.”
It’s a good reminder that as dazzling and convenient as technology may be, it isn’t infallible. Be actively engaged, double check information, and never trust blindly — especially if you’re a U.S. national security advisor.
