Understanding patterns of cyber conflict coverage in media
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Hooked! #2: A big month for spies in phones
The biggest cybersecurity news story of the last month had, ironically, nothing to do (directly) with hackers, espionage, or software backdoors. Instead, Signalgate was a dramatic reminder that the most secure systems are still vulnerable to human error.
Mike Waltz stands to US president Donald Trump’s right at the first full cabinet meeting of his second term, on 26 February 2025. Photo: The White House
Hello and welcome to the second edition of Hooked!, Binding Hook’s new monthly current events newsletter. In Hooked!, we draw on our latest publications and growing archive of expert research, analysis, and commentary to reflect on a recent security and technology event.
The biggest cybersecurity news story of the last month had, ironically, nothing to do (directly) with hackers, espionage, or software backdoors. Instead, Signalgate was a dramatic reminder that the most secure systems are still vulnerable to human error.
If you somehow missed that one, US national security adviser Mike Waltz accidentally added Jeffery Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, to a group chat where Trump administration officials including vice president JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth detailed an imminent plan to bomb Yemen, identified a CIA officer, and then celebrated the aftermath of the bombing. Waltz had apparently saved Goldberg’s number under the contact for then Trump spokesperson Brian Hughes, now spokesperson for the national security council.
The incident raised serious concerns about the security of US government communications, though Trump administration representatives maintain that no classified information was shared. The chat included, among other things, the time, place, and type of weapons of the attack. This could have put members of the US military at serious risk, if the accidental member of the chat had been someone other than a perplexed journalist.
Meanwhile, despite Waltz’s claims that Goldberg’s contact was ‘sucked’ into his phone or that Goldberg hacked him, and Trump’s claim that Signal might be ‘defective’, cybersecurity experts are pretty clear: this was an ‘operator issue’, exacerbated by disregard for conventional US government communications rules, which would have mandated the use of specific, non-internet connected devices running internal encrypted communication tools, rather than publicly available apps like Signal.
Of course, just because this incident was down to operator error, that doesn’t mean that mobile devices aren’t subject to a wide range of threats. Signal itself has recently been identified as a key vector for Russian intelligence services looking to obtain intelligence from Ukrainian forces. More generally, the rise of end-to-end encryption in messaging services such as Signal has prevented would-be listeners from eavesdropping on conversations, driving the use of more intrusive means of accessing data from target devices. While many governments have developed their own capabilities in this area, the main growth has come from commercially available spyware.
Last year, France and the United Kingdom launched a multistakeholder initiative to begin governing spyware and other commercial cyber intrusion capabilities, known as the Pall Mall Process. Several Binding Hook and Virtual Routes affiliates were present at the latest meeting, including Virtual Routes Colloquium leader and former European Cybersecurity Fellow Lena Riecke, who writes this week in Binding Hook about the still unresolved issues – vaguely defined terms, limited accountability mechanisms, and disparate government approaches – that might inhibit successful implementation.
For further spyware reading, Binding Hook managing editor James Shires has previously published suggested principles for regulating cyber-intrusion technologies. We have also published an insightful review of Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud’s Pegasus: How a Spy in Your Pocket Threatens the End of Privacy, Dignity, and Democracy; warnings about the risks to democracy, civil society, and journalism; and other tools that can be used to prevent spyware-linked human rights abuses.
There were some positive developments from all this – Signalgate led to massive increases in Signal downloads, as many Americans learned about the app, and there has been a burst of digital privacy coverage in mainstream media. Perhaps these widespread concerns can lead to more public support for and interest in efforts to combat spyware abuse.
Until next month,
Katharine Khamhaengwong
Binding Hook Editor
