4d ago

Hegseth reportedly has unsecured internet line in Pentagon office for Signal

www.pbs.org

Pressure is building on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The Washington Post first reported and the News Hour confirmed that Hegseth had the unclassified messaging app Signal installed on a computer in his Pentagon office. All of this is unfolding as chaos is mounting at the Pentagon with the firings of top Hegseth aides.

15 comments

it’s got to be a starlink.
- I’d bet money it’s this.
  
  funny joke, but it probably doesn't matter. the most powerful arsenal in the world is kept safe for a fucking reason. this is just so much more beyond malice or incompetence.

This is absolutely fucking insane lol
Dude’s texting his buddies on an unsecured connection, using an unsecured device, using an unapproved and un-auditable (and thus illegal) medium of communications.
And there are still people who think these absolute fucking travesties are “good on defense”
Hold on to your butts, everyone

Other end of the line goes in Putin's hole.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure unclass networks are allowed inside classified spaces...there are restrictions on how it can be installed, physically, but they are certainly allowed.
Signalgate needs more attention, for sure, but this sounds like a nothingburger.
Now the real problem isn't that it's there, but if it's actually "unsecured", as in nothing inspecting outbound traffic. Exfiltrating data from a classified network is easy peasy then, especially if it's in the comfort of your office.
For example, the unclass system usually should have removable media restrictions so that classified data can not be easily transferred onto it. If that's not in place then it's potentially a very big deal.
Edit: wow, bunch of people don't know how the world of classified spaces work. Not everything is a smoking gun. Everybody that has an office has an unsecured internet connection with access to Signal. It's in your pocket. Generally though, cell phones aren't allowed in classified spaces. Hence the need for unclassified systems.
Signalgate is bad. Having an unclass internet connection in a classified space is normal. Hegseth is a drunken piece of shit and a threat to national security and soverignity, but on its own, this is literally nothing. That is all.
- You are absolutely right.
  They try to spin it as "trying to get around no personal electronics allowed in the SCIF", but what if it's a low-side DoD machine?
  The biggest issue I see is if signal isn't vetted to run on DoD computers, and quite frankly that's a slap on the wrist at most.
  For reference, you can do as much damage as you could from signal by logging into Gmail.
  
  My biggest thing is just the way that everything is treated as a smoking gun. This is what got us Trump on the first place. It's good to question controversial actions by elected and appointed people, or really anybody...but skepticism requires context, otherwise it's just a conspiracy theory, and we've seen where that leads.

Imagine anonymous hacks it and closes it off from Russia
- Gotta admits that would be funny

15 comments