The signal of the coded messaging app is receiving unexpected attention this week.
High -ranking officials in the Trump administration, including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth, communicated plans for an attack on Yemen Houthis through a potentially unauthorized group conversation. However, Atlantic editor -in -chief Jeffrey Goldberg was incorrectly added to group conversation, giving him access to these very sensitive discussions he later published.
The signal application itself has no malfunction or worked in an unintentional way. On the contrary, it is a user’s mistake to accidentally add a journalist to a conversation about US military plans – a mistake that government security protocols should be able to prevent if they are actually followed.
When the Atlantic history broke down on Monday, signal downloads worldwide in iOS and Google Play increased 28% from the daily average over the past 30 days for the app intelligence firm Appfigules. In SH.BA, emissions increased 45% on Monday, and in Yemen, they increased by 42%. Before the scandal, the signal was ranked 50th among social media applications in Yemen, but climbed to #9 on Monday.
The signal did not respond to Techcrunch’s request for comment.
All communications in the signal are encrypted, meaning that only people in a conversation can see texts – even people who work in the signal can’t know what users talk about. But the signal is intended to be a consumption product for secure messages, not an iron -worn deposit for government military plans.
Although Hegseth said there were no “war plans” discussed in the signal conversation, the Atlantic published messages showing Hegseth giving details about the time of the attacks, as well as the weapons and planes to be used.
Since Thursday, the government continues to investigate this monumental security failure.
