Signal, the encrypted messaging app, is all anyone at the Capitol seems to be talking about since The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg revealed he had been accidentally added to a Trump administration Signal group chat regarding the lead-up to military strikes in Yemen. It’s also what everyone seems to be talking on.
Senators told NOTUS they use the app regularly, even to discuss sensitive information. Using the app for general communication is essentially unofficial policy in some offices. But lawmakers are quick to make a distinction: It’s not for classified information.
“We’ve actually encouraged folks, because of Salt Typhoon, to get off more of the traditional wireless networks and get onto more encrypted,” Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told NOTUS, citing the cyber espionage campaign believed to be operated by China. “But, encrypted end to end doesn’t mean that it’s supposed to take classified information.”