INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Waltz was removed from his post late last week, with Trump nominating him to serve as ambassador to the United Nations.The TeleMessage
website until recently boasted the ability to "capture, archive and monitor mobile communication" through text messages, voice calls,
WhatsApp, WeChat, Telegram, and Signal, as seen in an Internet Archive capture from Saturday
Another archived page says that TeleMessage "captures and records Signal calls, messages, deletions, including text, multimedia, [and]
files," and "maintain[s] all Signal app features and functionality as well as the Signal encryption."The TeleMessage home page currently
makes no mention of Signal, and links on the page have been disabled.The anonymous hacker who reportedly infiltrated TeleMessage told 404
Media that it took about 15 to 20 minutes and "wasn't much effort at all." While the hacker did not obtain Waltz's messages, "the hack shows
that the archived chat logs are not end-to-end encrypted between the modified version of the messaging app and the ultimate archive
destination controlled by the TeleMessage customer," according to 404 Media."Data related to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the
cryptocurrency giant Coinbase, and other financial institutions are included in the hacked material, according to screenshots of messages
and backend systems obtained by 404 Media," the report said
404 Media added that the "hacker did not access all messages stored or collected by TeleMessage, but could have likely accessed more data if
they decided to, underscoring the extreme risk posed by taking ordinarily secure end-to-end encrypted messaging apps such as Signal and
adding an extra archiving feature to them."
