The app at the heart of the shocking leak of top secret messages in the US

Last week, Jeffery Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, made a shocking revelation. Goldberg said he was accidentally added to a chat group of senior US intelligence and military officials discussing plans to attack Houthi rebels in Yemen.

In this chat group on the Signal messaging app, there are Defense Secretary Hegseth, US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio...

What is Signal?

Signal is an encrypted messaging app for secure communication. It encrypts messages end-to-end, so what you say is encrypted on the device itself and only decrypted when it reaches the recipient.

This method protects messages from being intercepted and read by anyone, including internet service providers, hackers, or the Signal team itself, during transmission. Additionally, users can set messages on this app to automatically disappear after a certain period of time.

Leaked messages between US Vice President JD Vance and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in a group chat. Photo: The Atlantic.

Signal is backed by an independent, US-based nonprofit called the Signal Foundation. It is funded by user donations and grants.

The fund was established in 2018 with a $50 million donation from Brian Acton, one of the co-founders of WhatsApp, the messaging platform acquired by Facebook in 2014.

Mr Acton left WhatsApp to set up the Signal Foundation after disagreements with Facebook, now known as Meta, over plans to monetise its messaging service.

Acton then teamed up with Moxie Marlinspike, a cryptographer, to design Signal's security system and create the Signal Foundation. According to the New York Times , the foundation was structured to prevent the app from having any incentive to sell user data.

“There are so many great reasons to use Signal, including the chance to have the US vice president randomly add you to a group chat coordinating sensitive military operations. Don’t miss out on this opportunity,” Marlinspike wrote on his personal X on March 24.

Special encryption technology

According to the New York Times , Signal is widely considered the most secure messaging app on the market thanks to its encryption technology and other measures designed to keep user data secure.

The encryption technology is essentially open source. This means that Signal’s code is public and available to non-profit technologists to test and identify vulnerabilities. The technology is also licensed and used by other services, notably WhatsApp.

Signal is widely considered the most secure messaging app on the market thanks to its encryption technology. Photo: Signal.

It was this encryption technology that played a key role when Signal became a target for foreign hackers. “When we learned that Signal users were being targeted, we introduced additional protections and in-app alerts to help protect them from falling victim to phishing attacks,” said Jun Harada, a Signal spokesperson.

Unlike other messaging services, the company doesn't store users' contacts or other identifying data. This helps even in the event of a security breach, and Signal is designed to retain as little user data as possible, keeping information exposure to a minimum.

That doesn't mean Signal is ideal for exchanging military battle plans, however. If a user's device is compromised, their Signal messages can still be read.

A secret chat group on Signal includes many high-ranking US officials. Photo: Reuters.

In February, the US National Security Agency sent a warning to its employees about vulnerabilities in the Signal app that could be exploited, but the company said the risk was not that great.

So far, though, there’s no evidence that Signal’s open-source encryption algorithm has been broken. In fact, according to the Wall Street Journal , intelligence officials sometimes use the app on their smartphones or personal computers because they believe it’s the safest option.

Signal has also become increasingly sought after as cybersecurity officials urge users to switch to encrypted apps to protect themselves from foreign espionage.

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