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The failure mode is that the Secretary of Defense unilaterally bypassed security protocols to use technology that had not been evaluated for that use case in a
by lukev 1y ago
The failure mode is that the Secretary of Defense unilaterally bypassed security protocols to use technology that had not been evaluated for that use case in a national security context by the appropriate experts.
It doesn't matter if he happened to use something that has a solid security model. The problem isn't Signal, it's that he ignored all the rules.
And it does have an impact, as we see in other news, because one failure mode of Signal is that it's super easy to add the wrong people to a group. Which has actually happened. Twice (at least.)
- diego898 1y agoI 100% agree - I’m only saying hegseth didn’t run an unsecured line into his office himself no? Why didn’t some automated system say “installation of unsecured lines in this building is not possible” or similar To be course : I didn’t think something so obviously wrong would have been allowed and enabled by several people who made this possible - removing absolutely no accountability from the person who asked for this to happen
- lukev 1y agoIf this happened the way it's being reported, yeah, several people should lose their jobs. I suspect this is a case of being more afraid of saying "no" to the boss than of facing consequences for violating policy. Policies are unfortunately not self-enforcing. Trump's been firing Inspectors General and dismantling mechanisms of internal accountability across the government, so perhaps that's a correct calculus in this case.
- betaby 1y ago> to use technology that had not been evaluated for that use case I'm curious what technology has been evaluated for secure communications. Are there better option? Is MS Teams approved?
- lukev 1y agoThere are whole agencies dedicated to this. In this case, DISA (https://www.disa.mil/About/Our-Work https://www.disa.mil/About/Our-Work)
- firesteelrain 1y agoCISA actually recommended Signal. https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2024-12/guidance-mobile-communications-best-practices.pdf https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2024-12/guidance-mo...
- lukev 1y agoThat's a recommendation on how to conduct personal/unclassified communications. Approval for classified or military use is a completely different ballgame.
- firesteelrain 1y agoOf course it’s not approved for classified use. There is a leap here until it’s been proven it’s been used for classified communications. There is no proof yet. Open to changing my mind if an authority on the topic says it is classified.
- rasz 1y agofor discussing airstrike details pre op?
- firesteelrain 1y agoWe don’t know what was actually discussed because all we have is dubious investigative reporting from unknown sources.
- ceejayoz 1y agoThe texts were released. There were Congressional hearings about them. There’s video of the CIA director acknowledging their existence. Why beclown yourself like this? Just say you don’t care. Even Trump can’t manage denial mode for this one. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna197944 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna197944 > "Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man," Trump said Tuesday in a phone interview with NBC News. > Asked what he was told about how Goldberg came to be added to the Signal chat, Trump said: “It was one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had his number on there.”