What to know about Signal, that the Pentagon previously discouraged the workers to use

As the White House is criticized for supposedly using a signal to discuss sensitive foreign policy plans, the encrypted messaging platform has now entered the center of attention.

Although the Government has officially discouraged federal employees to use the application for official businesses, it has become a crucial tool for many companies, technology and public enthusiasts to share messages safely.

The signal was launched in 2014 for iOS devices by a non -profit group, Open Whisper Systems, which offered users called free encrypted and, a year later, encrypted instant messages. The encryption disguises the data and information so that only those who send and receive the messages can read them.

An Android version of the application released in 2015. Both versions are free in application stores.

“The signal is designed to never collect or store confidential information. Messages and signal calls cannot access us or other third parties because they are always encrypted, private and end -to -end insurance,” said the company on its website.

The representatives of Signal Technology Foundation, the non -profit organization that operates the application, did not immediately respond to the request for ABC News comments.

The application records users through their telephone numbers, similar to WhatsApp and Imessage, and provides several options, including the disappearance of messages and protection of screen capture messages. The signal has promoted that it does not give user data to corporations and other entities.

Sign group chatsLike the center of the Trump administration scandal, they are controlled by users designated as administrators. Administrators have the power to invite, reject and block users at will.

The encryption keys for signal messages are stored on user devices and not on their servers, the company said.

Stuart Madnick, professor at MIT School of Management and founding director of cybersecurity in Mit Sloan, told ABC News that although the end -to -end encryption in applications such as Signal is safe, there are still ways in which messages can compromise through analog and digital tactics.

If a device is physically stolen together with the unlock codes, there is nothing that prevents an alleged thief to open the signal application and reading messages, he said. In addition, malware and other espionage software can access messages, according to Mardnick.

“It is the ramps inside and outside that keep us susceptible,” he said.

Atlantic chief editor Jeffrey Goldberg said in his piece and told ABC News that he was invited to the signs talk by someone who claimed to be the national security advisor Mike Waltz and at first I thought it was a hoax until he relaxed that it was a legitimate group chat with Trump’s chief officials.

“I saw that this Yemen operation from the beginning to the apparent end, and that was enough to know that there is something wrong in the system here that would allow this information to approach the open, to nature,” Goldberg told ABC News.

Madnick said that the situation described by Goldberg also showed another vulnerability when using extreme to extreme public encryption messages: slippers from a user who sent messages to the wrong person.

The signal grew in popularity among smartphone users and has been promoted by several figures in the technological community, including Edward Snowden.

Despite their growth, United States government officials distrust that members use the application for official businesses.

The Pentagon’s internal guard dog criticized the use of a former signal application official in 2021, qualifying it as a breach of the “record retention policies” of the department and an unauthorized medium to communicate confidential information.

The report, which focused on Brett Goldstein, a former director of the Digital Defense Service, found that Goldstein violated the department’s policies by using the signal “to discuss the official information of the Department of Defense” and encourage the subordinates to communicate with him in the application of encrypted messaging.

“The DOD is not approved by the signal as an authorized application of electronic messaging and voice call,” the report said, adding that “the use of the signal to discuss the official information of the DOD does not meet the requirements of the Law on Freedom of Information and the Policies for Retention of DOD records.”

Goldstein had already announced his plans to get out of government service when the report was published. According to the report, Goldstein pressed the legal office of the department to allow you to use the application.

“We recommend that the Secretary of Defense take the appropriate measures regarding the use of Mr. Goldstein of the electronic messaging application and unauthorized voice voice,” the report concluded.

During an audience of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, Democratic Senator Mark Warner, the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, about his participation in the signal chat. Ratcliffe said he was in the chat, but said that many in the agency are approved to use the signal.

“One of the first things that happened when they confirmed me as the director of the CIA was pointed out on my computer in the CIA as it is for most CIA officers. One of the things that informed me about the senator very early, was by the people of administration of CIA records about the use of the signal as a permissible labor use. That is a practice that preceded the current administration to the administration to the administration.

Ratcliffe, and the other intelligence officials they testified, did not provide more details on the use of the application government or approvals to use it.

Madnick typically said that the government has its own safe communications to send information, but that generally involves specialized devices that are installed in government offices.

“There are many things that the government makes to make its conversations safer, but that is inconvenient,” he said.

From 2024, the application has 70 million users worldwide compared to the 12 million that used it in 2020, according to the application monitoring site Application business.

In 2023, the non -profit organization, which is financed through donations and an investment of $ 50 million in 2017 of the WhatsApp co -founder Brian Acton, saying In a blog post, he required $ 50 million a year to operate in 2025.

“Our goal is to approach as much as possible to be fully supported by small donors, trusting a large number of modest contributions of people who care about the signal. We believe that this is the safest way of funds in terms of sustainability: to ensure that we will continue to be responsible before the signal of the people, avoiding any point of financing failures and reject the generalized practice of the generalized practice of monetizing supervision,” said the company.

Luke Barr, Cherise Halsall and Nathan Luna de ABC News contributed to this report