By now, it is widely known that President Trump’s former national security advisor, Mike Waltz, was spotted using a Signal app clone during a cabinet meeting. Significantly, the TeleMessage clone archives messages. Micah Lee reports what happened next.
Two days after the photo of Waltz was published, an anonymous source told me that they had hacked TeleMessage. “I would say the whole process took about 15 to 20 minutes,” the hacker said, as Joseph Cox and I reported in 404 Media. “It wasn’t much effort at all.” Representatives from TeleMessage and Smarsh did not respond to a request for comment.
The exploit that the hacker used was incredibly simple. At the time, we chose not to publish any details about it because it would be so easy for others to replicate. Since then, TeleMessage has temporarily suspended all services, which is now why WIRED can share exactly how this hack took place without risking anyone’s private data.
Read more at WIRED for an explanation of how the individual was able to hack TeleMessage.