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U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat

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Re: U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat

#601

I began my career in a classified environment working on government satellite programs. In my first week on the job, I was told, explicitly, that if I shared Classified or Controlled Unclassified information over unapproved channels, I would be reprimanded—likely fired, or less likely, prosecuted. It was also made clear that safeguarding the nation's secrets from the carelessness of others was my responsibility, too.…

SCIF?

Re: U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat

#602
post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, those are the reasons for, but would be interesting for you to address the salient point of not trusting those government systems. I'm sure you can make the counterargument.

If the CIA and NSA (let alone Russian and Chinese intelligence) are illegally spying on you, your civilian phone is toast. You shouldn't be ordering DoorDash on the thing.

Imagine the resources the Chinese and Russian governments devote to accessing these phones. The value to them could be trillions of dollars and/or existential differences in national security outcomes. The owners have to assume they are hacked, and that China and Russia know where they are going to dinner (which itself is a problem - they know who is meeting with who and when).

Re: U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat

#605

I began my career in a classified environment working on government satellite programs. In my first week on the job, I was told, explicitly, that if I shared Classified or Controlled Unclassified information over unapproved channels, I would be reprimanded—likely fired, or less likely, prosecuted. It was also made clear that safeguarding the nation's secrets from the carelessness of others was my responsibility, too.…

> Does Chinese intelligence know? How likely is it that all 18 of those people were accessing from mobile operating systems with no known working exploit chain? I would say pretty unlikely.

If they're "just" using Signal, they're likely "just" using stock Android if there isn't a policy requiring iPhones in lockdown mode. It's a very good question as to whether such a policy exists.

Re: U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat

#606

I began my career in a classified environment working on government satellite programs. In my first week on the job, I was told, explicitly, that if I shared Classified or Controlled Unclassified information over unapproved channels, I would be reprimanded—likely fired, or less likely, prosecuted. It was also made clear that safeguarding the nation's secrets from the carelessness of others was my responsibility, too.…

CISA explicitly promoted Signal for use by top level government officials. The fact that an outsider was invited to a conversation they didn't belong in is troubling, but basically nothing else about this seems to be outside of recommended policy. The administration is also claiming that there was no confidential information in the conversation, which I think is certainly debatable, but the rest of the story seems ov…

You're talking about this document:

https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2024-12/guidance-mo...

Which says:

  Organizations may already have these best practices in place, such as secure communication platforms1 and multifactor authentication (MFA) policies. In cases where organizations do not, apply the following best practices to your mobile devices.
And goes on to say:

  Adopt a free messaging application for secure communications that guarantees end-to-end encryption, such as Signal or similar apps.
But concludes:

  Any reference to specific commercial entities, products, processes, or services by service mark, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by CISA.
So they mention signal as an example of an app that they are talking about, but they explicitly state that by mentioning it they are not implying to endorse or recommend or even favor it.

Moreover, the advice doesn't apply to organizations that have their own best practices in place, which the organizations in question certainly do. So the question isn't what CISA recommends it's what the CIA, DoD, Department of State, etc. recommend.

Re: U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat

#607

Here's how Eisenhower dealt with a similar leak.[1] General Henry Miller made public comments about the secret date of the Allied invasion of Normandy in May 1944. He was a personal friend of Eisenhower. Eisenhower demoted him and sent him back to the US in disgrace. He wasn't court-martialed. [1] https://youtu.be/fD0IlFPTopA?t=269

I'm sorry but how in the hell is that a similar leak other than they are in the same category ? Not justifying Trump administration but just seems like a whole different level of stakes.

People could, obviously, die from leaking a military operation. You're right that more people would die in a larger operation, but I'd assume most of us are okay with firing or prosecuting people for risking lives for not following basic policies.

Re: U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat

#608
post #601

I began my career in a classified environment working on government satellite programs. In my first week on the job, I was told, explicitly, that if I shared Classified or Controlled Unclassified information over unapproved channels, I would be reprimanded—likely fired, or less likely, prosecuted. It was also made clear that safeguarding the nation's secrets from the carelessness of others was my responsibility, too.…

SCIF?

Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensitive_compartmented_inform...

Re: U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat

#609

I began my career in a classified environment working on government satellite programs. In my first week on the job, I was told, explicitly, that if I shared Classified or Controlled Unclassified information over unapproved channels, I would be reprimanded—likely fired, or less likely, prosecuted. It was also made clear that safeguarding the nation's secrets from the carelessness of others was my responsibility, too.…

When you get to a certain level, you believe the rules don't apply to you. There are many examples of this, but I won't list any for fear of promoting false equivalencies.

In the Trump Whitehouse, not only do you believe the rules don't apply to you, but actually the rules don't apply to you.
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