Messaging App Used by Mike Waltz, Trump Deportation Airline GlobalX Both Hacked in Separate Breaches

TeleMessage, a communications app used by former Trump national security adviser Mike Waltz, has suspended services after a reported hack exposed some user messages. The breach follows controversy over Waltz's use of the app to coordinate military updates, including accidentally adding a journalist to a sensitive Signal group chat. From the report: In an email, Portland, Oregon-based Smarsh, which runs the TeleMessage app, said it was "investigating a potential security incident" and was suspending all its services "out of an abundance of caution." A Reuters photograph showed Waltz using TeleMessage, an unofficial version of the popular encrypted messaging app Signal, on his phone during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. A separate report from 404 Media says hackers have also targeted GlobalX Air -- one of the main airlines the Trump administration is using as part of its deportation efforts -- and claim to have stolen flight records and passenger manifests for all its flights, including those for deportation. From the report: The data, which the hackers contacted 404 Media and other journalists about unprompted, could provide granular insight into who exactly has been deported on GlobalX flights, when, and to where, with GlobalX being the charter company that facilitated the deportation of hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador. "Anonymous has decided to enforce the Judge's order since you and your sycophant staff ignore lawful orders that go against your fascist plans," a defacement message posted to GlobalX's website reads. Anonymous, well-known for its use of the Guy Fawkes mask, is an umbrella some hackers operate under when performing what they see as hacktivism.

No shit

[jhoegl]

Our government is compromised from the top down. It will take decades to repair, rebuild, and trust again.

Odd thing is, USA isnt getting money for all this data Russia now has and advancements Russia has made from this.

Ironically, keeping patient data, user data, personal details, and social security data separated has worked well for us in this scenario.

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[AmiMoJo]

I just hope it can be repaired. History suggests that it takes some pretty drastic measures to recover from this, often resulting in the country breaking up or no longer existing.

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[arglebargle_xiv]

History suggests that it takes some pretty drastic measures to recover from this, often resulting in the country breaking up or no longer existing.

Or as it's known in tech terms, a reformat and reinstall.

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[newbie_fantod]

As a citizen of a nation that has (repeatedly) been threatened with annexation by the US, I heartily support incompetence at the highest levels of it's NatSec apparatus and pray that it continues.

Signed,
A Former Ally

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[Rujiel]

Russia is not a player in this story.. it's an Israeli app. Nice camard there, you've learned well from all the dems politicians that deflect with "but Russia" and repubs deflecting with "but China".

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[Rujiel]

Find me the word Russia in any article linked above. You have reached entirely new levels of incomprehension

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[jhoegl]

You mean the part where they detected logins from Russia after a few minutes of creating new accounts?

I mean, I can put two and two together, Russia. Sorry your system of governance allows for stupidity.

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[Rujiel]

I knew that Russiagating lowers your intelligence, but from this I've learned it can also make you hallucinate like an LLM.

Golly gee

[quonset]

An unapproved piece of software used by the former National Security adviser on their personal phone discussing classified information gets compromised. Who didn't see that coming?

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[ArchieBunker]

That's what DEI hires will get you.

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[Epeeist]

That's what DEI hires will get you.

Aren't people like Walz and Vance DEI hires? Neither of them seem to have been hired for competence, surely it must have been because of their ethnicity and gender.

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[sg_oneill]

It would appear "Recieves payoffs from shady thinktanks and influence networks" is apparently a protected category now, so yes, DEI.

Okay...

[SmaryJerry]

So some random unknown app was hacked that used to be used by a guy who was already fired for being insecure. Seems like a slow news day, what's next are we reporting on people who were deported who have public deportation orders... o wait.. same summary here. Moving on.

Re:Okay...

[Ksevio]

So some random unknown app was hacked that used to be used by a guy who was already fired for being insecure

Let's be clear here - he wasn't fired for being insecure, he was fired because people found out he was being insecure and it was becoming too much of a distraction from all the crimes against humanity the administration was trying to do. According to Trump, he wasn't even fired, he was promoted to UN Ambassador

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[ClickOnThis]

I don't think he was fired/promoted for being a distraction. Distraction appears to be a go-to tactic for this White House.

Re:Okay...

[Anonymous Coward]

Moving on.

The United States deliberately sent two hundred people to a concentration camp.

We shouldn't be 'moving on', but the sad reality is that there are many people cheering what happened, and the administration is still planning to send even more.

It's so bad, one of the things slowing down the next move is the dictator that runs that concentration camp - he's upset that the US lied to him about who they were sending.

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[thegarbz]

yes they deliberately did it - they were in the US illegally.

How would you know? No court has had the opportunity to rule on the matter. If due process isn't followed it follows from basic logic that it can't be said that someone was doing something illegal.

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[SmaryJerry]

They know they were in the US illegally because they are literally citizens of another country and they don't have an active visa. What more due process is due???

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[Chelloveck]

Well, except for the ones who were here legally, who were following the rules, and, oh yeah... A couple of US citizens as well.

That's the problem with skipping the due process part. If you go to round up everyone you "know" is a criminal you're going to catch quite a few innocents as well, especially if your evidence is as flimsy as them having brown skin and tattoos.. But they don't get a chance to defend themselves, because you've already decided they're criminals.

Try reading *all* the Constitutional

Remember?

[AlanObject]

There are a fair number of sitting members of Congress and the Senate who just a few short years ago were insisting that the e-mails of a certain Secretary of State was the greatest National Security Crisis since ever and they would spare no taxpayer expense and place no limit whatever on hearings to Get To The Bottom of It. Their patriotism could tolerate absolutely no less.

What do they have to say about this? Or what have they had to say about the Hegseth incidents of similar (and worse) nature?

I really would like to know.

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[Anonymous Coward]

There are a fair number of sitting members of Congress and the Senate who just a few short years ago were insisting that the e-mails of a certain Secretary of State was the greatest National Security Crisis since ever and they would spare no taxpayer expense and place no limit whatever on hearings to Get To The Bottom of It.

I remember that:
a. Her predecessor did exactly the same thing,
b. There was no law against it at the time, and
c. The investigation found she hadn't stored anything damaging on the server anyway.

I also note that one of the loudest voices castigating this certain SoS was responsible for covering up years of child sexual abuse. You know who I mean.

Re:Remember?

[ClickOnThis]

If you think that Trump and his supporters are "far left" then you have your head up your ass.

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[jacks smirking reven]

I can see something to that, I think it depends on if you would classify the Soviet style communist totalitarianism "left wing" (I think with Trump and those situations we are straining the usefulness of the right/left categories, it's a bit from both ends of the horseshoe)

Frankly I think Trumpism shares a lot with the North Korean idea of Juche [wikipedia.org] but I don't think despite being "communist" I would consider N Korea "left wing"

First, the government of the republic will implement with all consistency the line o

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[ArchieBunker]

Ronald Reagan is far left when you compare him to MAGA. I can elaborate if you'd like.

you guys are a bunch of cat's taped to eachother

[thcip]

Regardless of what you sling at each other, all of this left wing, right wing BS gets old. Anything with only one wing is just going to fly around in circles until it crashes. Anyhow, telemessage's website is interesting. check https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com] None of the links are working.. Must be some hack.

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[thcip]

https://sitereport.netcraft.co... [netcraft.com] just a funny update.

Hardcoded Credentials

[mischi_amnesiac]

Well, what do you expect when you use hardcoded credentials? [micahflee.com]

Israeli spyware on the phones of US senators

[Rujiel]

In this country, being spied on by a foreign power is something that our elected officials happily volunteer for. The media are fine with that part, and wouldn't even be talking about it if the app wasn't insecure.