When Trump’s leading assistants sent texts on the signal, the flight data appears as a member of the group chat in Russia

President Trump was Ukraine and Middle East envoy, Steve Wittov Listed in a group chat With more than ten senior administration officials-and without intent, one of the journalists-in the statement of the application of the correspondence, revealed an analysis of CBS news for open aviation information and source.

Russia has repeatedly tried to display the signal, a common commercial messages platform that many have been learned to learn senior officials in the Trump administration to discuss sensitive military planning.

Witkoff arrived in Moscow shortly after local time on March 13, according to data from the Flightradar24 flight tracking site, and a video clip of the Russian media broadcast on his convoy, leaving Vnukovo International Airport shortly after. About 12 hours later, he was added to the “Small Houthi Group” chat, along with senior Trump administration officials, to discuss an imminent military operation against the Houthis in Yemen, according to the editor of Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg, who was included in the chat for reasons that are still unhappy.

American lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, questioned the use of the conversation commercial communication platform, which Goldberg revealed on Monday alone. a report For the Atlantic Three.

The National Security Council told CBS News on Monday that the group chat “looks authentic”.

Goldberg Witkev did not tell any comments in the group chat until Saturday, after he left Russia and returned to the United States, with a stop on Friday in Baku, Azerbaijan. It is not clear whether a phone issued to Witkoff was included by the United States government or a personal device in the sign chat, or whether he has the device with it in Russia, but American officials have been frustrated by using the correspondence application on government agencies, Incurred By the Ministry of Defense.

White House press secretary Caroline Levit criticized the Atlantic Ocean report on Tuesday, Saying On X that “war plans” were not discussed, and without a signal, adding that the White House lawyer office “provided instructions on a number of different platforms for senior President Trump officials, who continues safely and efficiently as possible.”

Vists in the collective chat, Director of National Intelligence Tolsi Gabbard and the director of the CIA John Ratcliffe, appeared in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday to Pre -planned hearing On security threats all over the world. Ratcliffe admitted on Tuesday that it was part of the chat.

During the group’s discussion about the reference, Goldberg stated, Ratcliffe appointed an intelligence officer of the CIA in chatting at 5:24 pm East time, which was after midnight in Russia. Witkeov Moscow’s trip did not leave until two in the morning almost local time, and Sergei Markov, the former adviser to Putin, who is still close to the Russian President, said in a telegram position that Wittakov and Putin were gathering in the Kremlin until 1:30 am

The Kremlin nor the White House confirmed the timing of a meeting with Wethouf with Putin. The White House did not immediately respond to CBS News questions about the meeting or whether Witkoff has its device in Kremlin.

Neil Ashdoun, a consultant who works on cybersecurity, told CBS News that Signal has a well -known good reputation because it is based on an open source icon, and thus can be examined for weaknesses.

However, Ashdoun said that looking at whether the platform is safe, “is to miss the essence of the problem, which is the question of whether using this application in that environment to transfer this level of information is in line with policies and operations, and if not, this becomes a problem.”

The signal application provides encryption from end to end, which means that messages sent on the statute can not be read by any person other than messengers and receptors. This encryption is not penetrated, however, the Google Threat Intelligence Group group to caution On the past month, only “the increasing efforts of many actors aligned in Russia to bargaining on the reference Messenger accounts used by individuals with interest in Russian intelligence services.”

The best electronic defense agency in Ukraine last week warned of the targeted attacks that raise the signals of signaling signals to send harmful programs to the employees of defense companies and members of the armed forces in Ukraine. the bulletin On March 18th, the response to the emergency response team in Ukraine indicates that the attacks began this month, with signal messages that contain links to the archived messages, which are denied as meeting reports. According to the memo, some messages were sent from the current contacts, which increases the possibility of opening clinic links.

Jake Moore, the ESET global cybersecurity adviser, told CBS News, some methods of kidnapping smartphones so as not to require even direct access to the device.

One of the most famous electronic threats to appear in the past decade is Pegasus, spyware developed by the Israeli company NSO and cultivation Used to target journalists and activists. Pegasus is designed to be installed from a distance on mobile devices and then can control the camera, messaging applications, microphones, or even the screen itself without the user knowing that it was installed.

While safe government communications channels are present for sensitive contacts, Moore said in practice, the way that was chosen for such communication, “often returns to the balance of comfort against security.”

While the danger is the minimum of the audience, he said, “The safer these talks, or their greater sensitivity, must increase the inconvenience, because security should be very important.”

Nicole Sanja

He contributed to this report.