Pete Hegseth Mike Waltz Tulsi Gabbard Private Data and Passwords of Senior US Security Officials Found Online DER SPIEGEL

pUS Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth His contact info could be found using a commercial people finderppPrivate contact details of the most important security advisers to US President Donald Trump can be found on the internet DER SPIEGEL reporters were able to find mobile phone numbers email addresses and even some passwords belonging to the top officialsppTo do so the reporters used commercial people search engines along with hacked customer data that has been published on the web Those affected by the leaks include National Security Adviser Mike Waltz Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Secretary of Defense Pete HegsethppMost of these numbers and email addresses are apparently still in use with some of them linked to profiles on social media platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn They were used to create Dropbox accounts and profiles in apps that track running data There are also WhatsApp profiles for the respective phone numbers and even Signal accounts in some casesppAs such the reporting has revealed an additional grave previously unknown security breach at the highest levels in Washington Hostile intelligence services could use this publicly available data to hack the communications of those affected by installing spyware on their devices It is thus conceivable that foreign agents were privy to the Signal chat group in which Gabbard Waltz and Hegseth discussed a military strikeppIt remains unclear however whether this extremely problematic chat was conducted using Signal accounts linked to the private telephone numbers of the officials involved Tulsi Gabbard has declined to comment DER SPIEGEL reporting has demonstrated though that privately used and publicly accessible telephone numbers belonging to her and Waltz are in fact linked to Signal accountsppThe US newsmagazine The Atlantic revealed on Monday that Gabbard Waltz and Hegseth along with CIA Director John Ratcliffe and additional officials discussed an imminent military strike against the Houthi militia in Yemen in a Signal chat The information shared among the participants included intelligence information and precise attack plans According to the Atlantic Waltz added the editorinchief of the magazine Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat group Precisely why he did so remains unclearppThe White House confirmed the scandal after the fact Trump insisted that it did not include classified content a question that is of particular relevance since members of the US government are not permitted to share such information over Signal The US special envoy for Ukraine and the Middle East Steve Witkoff was even in Russia while participating in the chat groupppPete Hegseths WhatsApp profile photoppDER SPIEGEL was able to find some of the contact information for Gabbard Hegseth and Waltz in commercial databases while other information was in socalled password leaks which are hardly a rarity on the internet One example is the 2019 discovery by Troy Hunt who found 773 million email addresses and more than 21 million passwords in a hacker forumppSince then there have been numerous additional leaks Criminals are constantly compiling new collections from hacks usually to sell them on forumsppIt was particularly easy for DER SPIEGEL reporters to discover Hegseths mobile number and email address They turned to a commercial provider of contact information that is primarily used by companies for sales marketing and recruitmentppDER SPIEGEL sent the provider a link to Hegseths LinkedIn profile and received a Gmail address and a mobile phone number in return in addition to other information A search of leaked user data revealed that the email address and in some cases even the password associated with it could be found in over 20 publicly accessible leaks Using publicly available information it was possible to verify that the email address was used just a few days agoppThe mobile number provided meanwhile led to a WhatsApp account that Hegseth apparently only recently deleted The profile photo showed a shirtless Hegseth in a baseball cap and necklace Comparisons with other photos of the US secretary of defense using facial recognition software were able to confirm that the photo on the WhatsApp profile was indeed HegsethppUS National Security Adviser Mike Waltz Mobile number and email address found using a commercial people finderppWaltzs mobile number and email address could be found using the same service provider The mobile phone number could even be found using a people search engine popular in the US DER SPIEGEL reporters were also able to find several passwords for Waltzs email address in leaked databases The information also led to Waltzs profiles for Microsoft Teams LinkedIn WhatsApp and SignalppNational Intelligence Director Gabbard was seemingly more careful with her data than her two male colleagues She apparently had her own data blocked in the commercial contact search engines that contained the data of Hegseth and Waltz But her email address was to be found on WikiLeaks and RedditppGabbards email address is available in more than 10 leaks One of those also contains a partial telephone number which when completed leads to an active WhatsApp account and a Signal profileppExposed data from top politicians can be used by hackers to launch convincing phishing attacks and gain access to devices and various services such as email chat tools and PayPal says Donald Ortmann a specialist in information security information procurement and social engineering He supports companies and authorities following cyberattacksppIn addition deepfake attacks using images and sound available online can be launched to participate in virtual meetings says Ortmann Compromised accounts also enable hackers to install malware monitor communications and attempt political blackmailppTo protect the private contact information of the US politicians DER SPIEGEL is not publishing the telephone numbers email addresses and passwords it found Furthermore no tests were performed to determine if the passwords for the email addresses are still active DER SPIEGEL informed Gabbard Hegseth and Waltz of its findingsppThe US Defense Department did not respond to a request for comment A spokesperson for the National Security Council indicated that the passwords and accounts of Michael Waltz the national security adviser had been changed before he joined Congress in 2019ppPersonal inquiries sent by DER SPIEGEL to the leaked WhatsApp and Signal accounts belonging to Waltz were delivered according to the confirmation function His WhatsApp profile photo showed Waltz with two other people in front of a US flag Shortly after the inquiries were sent Waltzs accounts were apparently deactivated the WhatsApp chat with DER SPIEGEL disappearedppThe office of the national intelligence director stated that Tulsi Gabbards private data was leaked almost 10 years ago that she hadnt used the relevant platforms for several years and that she had changed her passwords several timesppDER SPIEGEL reporting however found that the private Google account belonging to Gabbard was used as recently as around two weeks ago Messages sent by DER SPIEGEL to her leaked WhatsApp and Signal accounts were also apparently delivered Two check marks appeared after they were sentppThis story has been updated to include statements received from the offices of the officials involved after initial publicationppUS Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth His contact info could be found using a commercial people finderppPete Hegseths WhatsApp profile photoppUS National Security Adviser Mike Waltz Mobile number and email address found using a commercial people finderp