The Trump Administration Sure Is Having Trouble Keeping Its Comms PrivateNEWS | 14 May 2025When former national security adviser Mike Waltz had a picture taken of him last week, he didn’t expect for the whole world to see that he was using TeleMessage, a messaging app similar to Signal. Now the app has been hacked, with portions of data linked to government entities like Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and companies like Coinbase. Today on the show, we’re joined by WIRED senior writer Lily Hay Newman to discuss what this incident tells us about the growing vulnerabilities in government communications.
Articles mentioned in this episode:
Mike Waltz Has Somehow Gotten Even Worse at Using Signal, by Lily Hay Newman
The Signal Clone the Trump Admin Uses Was Hacked , by Joseph Cox and Micah Lee
The Signal Clone Mike Waltz Was Caught Using Has Direct Access to User Chats, by Lily Hay Newman
You can follow Zoë Schiffer on Bluesky at @zoeschiffer and Lily Hay Newman on Bluesky at @lhn. Write to us at uncannyvalley@wired.com.
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Transcript
Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors.
Zoë Schiffer: Hi, this is Zoë. Before we start, I want to take the chance to remind you that we want to hear from you. If you have tech-related questions that have been on your mind or a topic that you wish we'd cover, write to us at uncannyvalley@WIRED.com. And if you listen to and enjoy the show, please rate it and leave a review on your podcast app of choice. It really honestly makes a difference. Welcome to WIRED's Uncanny Valley. I'm WIRED's director of business and industry, Zoë Schiffer. Today on the show, the hacking scandal surrounding TeleMessage, the knockoff version of Signal, which is used by at least one high-ranking member of the Trump administration. The app has temporarily suspended its services while it investigates the incident. We're going to talk about how former national security adviser Mike Waltz was seen last week using the app in a cabinet meeting and what this latest incident tells us about the growing vulnerabilities in government communication. I'm joined by Lily Hay Newman, senior writer at WIRED. Lily, welcome to the show.
Lily Hay Newman: It's a pleasure to be here.
Zoë Schiffer: What exactly is TeleMessage?
Lily Hay Newman: Yeah. So TeleMessage is a company that's been around since the late ’90s. It was founded in Israel, and it creates apps that are sort of mirror images or clones of existing communication apps, and then adds in an archiving feature. So this is especially perhaps wanted for apps that are securing communications, such that it's difficult to retain copies of the messages. So if you need copies for compliance or you need a record, the idea is that these services are giving the same functionality as apps you know, like WhatsApp or Telegram or Signal, but with the addition of these archiving features.Author: Anna Lagos. Zoë Schiffer. Lily Hay Newman. Lauren Goode. Michael Calore. Dell Cameron. Vittoria Elliott. Leah Feiger. Brian Barrett. Molly Taft. Source
