According to a report released on Wednesday by German media publication Der Spiegel, the specific details of senior US President Donald Trump‘s security experts is available online.
This is yet another instance of the Trump administration leaks of sensitive information following the Signal talk discussion.
The release revealed that professional data-search systems and leaked online directories can be used to find sensitive information, including portable numbers, email addresses, and credentials belonging to national security advisor Mike Waltz, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and defence minister Pete Hegseth.
These contact details, which are largely accurate, are associated with a variety of digital platforms, including Dropbox, Linked In, and location-tracking software.
According to the report, Gabbard and Waltz’s contact information was linked to their Signal and WhatsApp accounts.
The German publication claims that the majority of these phone numbers and email addresses are still being used, with some relating to profiles on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Instagram.
And these data were used to build Dropbox profiles and accounts in applications that monitor running data. Additionally, there are WhatsApp profiles for the respective phone numbers, and in some cases, there are even Signal accounts.
Some of Gabbard, Hegseth, and Waltz’s contact information was discovered by Spiegel in commercial databases, while other details were hardly ever discovered in’password leaks’.
Hegseth’s contact information was relatively simple to obtain for the German media outlet. They made use of a typical business database service for sales and hiring purposes.
Hegseth’s LinkedIn profile link was provided to the database provider along with his Gmail address, phone number, and additional details. His email address and password were found in more than 20 public leaks, according to further investigation of data breaches. They made sure the email address remained active by providing publicly accessible data.
Compared to her two coworkers, Director of National Intelligence Gabbard demonstrated greater digital security awareness. Although she was able to restrict access to her contact information on Hegseth and Waltz’s commercial contact lists, her email address was also published on Reddit and WikiLeaks platforms.
Records indicated Gabbard’s email address was a target of more than 10 data breaches. A partial phone number was included in one breach, which connected to active WhatsApp and Signal accounts when it was finished.
According to Donald Ortmann, a specialist in information security, information procurement, and social engineering,” Exposed data from top politicians can be used by hackers to launch convincing phishing attacks and gain access to devices and various services like email, chat tools, and PayPal.” He backs businesses and authorities in the wake of cyberattacks.
