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The federal agency responsible for ensuring cybersecurity at all levels of government cited the use of encrypted messaging app signals as “best practices” for “highly targeted” government officials, Biden-era documents show.
Fox News Digital discovered that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was outlined in the Federal Government’s Guide for Employees late last year, encrypted messaging platforms such as civil servants who were better protected against foreign enemy hackers amid China-linked cyber violations. CISA is an office under the Department of Homeland Security and is accused of ensuring cybersecurity across all levels of government.
Under the 2024 Biden administration, CISA released “Mobile Communication Best Practice Guidance” for “highly targeted individuals” defined as government officials or politicians “are likely to own information of interest to these threat actors.” The document noted that the guide was “applicable to all viewers,” but specifically addressed high-target politicians and officials.
“The CISA urges highly targeted individuals to immediately review and apply the following best practices to protect mobile communications. Highly targeted individuals should assume that all communications between mobile devices, including government and individual devices, are at risk of interception or operation. However, a single solution will eliminate all risks and will not implement these best practices to significantly promote the protection of false communications in other environments and the environments that existed.
The document, published in December, details the need for highly targeted government officials to use “end-to-end encrypted communications” as part of their “best practice” advice. End-to-end encryption is understood as a secure communication method in which the sender’s message is encrypted and decrypted only by the recipient of the message.
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Signal uses end-to-end encryption and is available free of charge from the digital app store. (Artur widak/nurphoto via Getty Images)
CISA guidance specifically cites government officials need to download the “end-to-end encrypted communications” platform to their mobile phones and computers, particularly citing signals as an app to adhere to best practices.
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National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegses at the White House on February 24th (Reuters/Brian Snyder)
“We employ free messaging applications for secure communications, such as signals and similar apps, to ensure end-to-end encryption,” the guidance states. “CISA recommends end-to-end encrypted messaging apps compatible with both iPhone and Android operating systems, allowing text messaging interoperability across platforms. Such apps may offer clients for MacO, Windows, Linux and sometimes web. Images that can enhance privacy.”
Signal is an encrypted messaging app that works in the same way as texting and making calls, but there are additional security measures to ensure that communications with what is included in the communication are kept private.
Signal’s popularity has increased in recent months after it was discovered during the campaign that China-linked hackers targeted US mobile phone data, including data belonging to President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, Politico reported this week.
President Donald Trump on the South Lawn of the White House (Al Drago/Bloomberg by Getty Images) before boarding the Marines in Washington on February 28, 2025.
“CISA is releasing guidance on this best practice to promote the protection of mobile communications from exploitation by PRC-affiliated and other malicious cyber threat actors,” the CISA Guidance mentions China’s cyber violations in 2024.
Fox News Digital contacted the CISA with additional comments or information regarding the use of signals between government officials, but did not receive an immediate reply.
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The guidance came months before the Trump administration fired fire from Democrats and other critics after it was revealed that the Trump administration discussed a planned strike against Yemeni terrorists in a signal group chat that includes Atlantic editors.
Jeffrey Goldberg of Atlantic published her first account on Monday for what she read in a Signal Group chat called “Houthi PC Small Group” after it was added to the chain on March 13th.
The Atlantic report sparked criticism among Democrats who denounced the Trump administration for using apps to endanger national security over planned attacks on Iran-backed Hooty terrorists in Yemen.
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Jeffrey Goldberg will speak on the stage at the Atlantic Festival “Power of Art of Power Nancy Pelosi” (Counts of Gemal/Getty Images of Atlantic) held in Washington, DC on September 19, 2024.
“This is one of the most spectacular violations of military information I’ve read for a very long time,” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y. said in a floor speech Monday.
CIA director John Ratcliffe appeared before the Senate Intelligence Email Committee on Tuesday morning to hold an annual hearing on the global threat facing the US, and was also burned into the Signal Group Chat.
The CIA chief confirmed he was in a group chat, including the Atlantic editor-in-chief, adding that the signal had already been downloaded to his computer when he was sworn as director in January, adding that the app has a long history as a communications platform for government officials that spread throughout the Biden administration.
President Trump and former President Biden (McNamee/Pool wins via Reuters | Getty Images)
“One of the first things that happened when I was confirmed as a CIA director was that for most CIA officers, the signals were loaded onto my computer, so one of the things I was explaining very early on was about the people at CIA Records Management using them about the use of signals,” he said.
“It’s a practice that precedes the current administration of the Biden administration,” he continued.
Former National Security Officer Biden confirmed with the Associated Press that the previous administration used the signal if police were given permission to download the app on a White House-controlled mobile phone. However, according to the report, staff were told to use it sparingly.
President Donald Trump will speak at the White House’s Oval Office on March 7, 2025 (Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“We understand that the Biden administration has approved the signal as a means of communication that is consistent with the administration’s president’s record-keeping requirements and has followed the Trump administration,” R-Ark. Senator Tom Cotton appeared on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday morning.
A Defense Department memo under the Biden administration in 2023 detailed that while signals have been approved by government officials for some degree of use, the platform cannot be used to “access, transmit and process private DOD information.” CISA guidance relating to the signal was released after the Department of Defense guidance.
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The Trump administration defended group chat, saying it didn’t contain any sensitive information and that the Atlantic story is “just part of the founding community of NATSEC, which has run equally tired gameplay in the past.”
White House spokesman Karoline Leavitt posted to X on Tuesday that “the classified material was not sent to the thread” and “the “war plan” was not discussed.”
White House Communications Director Stephen Chan denounced Atlantic press on the X-Post Tuesday afternoon as an example of “anti-Trump force” “trying to master misinformation.”
“From “Russia, Russia, Russia,” to the hoax of the first term, to fake document cases over the past four years… each turn, anti-Trump’s powers attempted to weaponize harmless actions and turn them into false rage that fake news outlets can use to master misinformation,” Chen posted on X.
Trump told NBC News Tuesday that staff at Waltz’s office included journalists in the highly-profile group chat but did not reveal the identity of the staff or whether individuals would face disciplinary action.
“It was one of the Michael people on the phone. The staff had his number there,” Trump told NBC News in a phone interview when he asked how Goldberg was added to the famous chat.
Trump defended the Waltz in his comments on Fox News early Tuesday, and also defended it in an NBC interview.
“He’s not fired,” Trump told Fox News in Waltz. The president said the incident was “mistake,” but said there was “nothing important” in the signal text thread.
“Michael Waltz learned the lesson and he’s a good guy,” Trump told NBC in an interview.
The president added that Goldberg’s participation in group chats “has no effect on the Yemen strike at all.”
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The Signal Group text leak comes about 10 years after news broke that the then-secretary of Hillary Clinton’s then-secretary used a private email server for official government communications.
Fox News Digital contacted the White House for additional comment on the signal chat leak but did not receive an immediate reply.
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