The contact details of some American national security officials, including mobile phone numbers, are freely available on the Internet — they were found by journalists.
This is stated in the Der Spiegel investigation.
The journalists used commercial search engines and hacked customer data that was published online. Among those affected by the leak were the White House National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Most of the numbers and email addresses found are likely still in use, and some are linked to social media profiles like Instagram and LinkedIn. They were used to create Dropbox accounts and profiles on apps that track work data. There are also WhatsApp profiles for the corresponding phone numbers, and in some cases even Signal accounts.
Der Spiegel noted that it was particularly easy to find Hegsetʼs mobile phone number and email address. They contacted a commercial contact information provider, which is mostly used by companies for sales, marketing and recruitment.
The journalists sent the provider a link to the Pentagon chiefʼs LinkedIn profile and received in return a Gmail address and mobile phone number, as well as other information. A search of the user data leak showed that the email address and sometimes even the password associated with it could be found in more than 20 public sources. Using the public information, it was possible to verify that the email address had been used only a few days earlier.
Meanwhile, the mobile phone number provided led to a WhatsApp account that Gegset apparently recently deleted. The account featured a photo of the minister himself, shirtless, wearing a baseball cap and with his children by his side.
Waltzʼs mobile phone number and email address could be found using the same provider, as well as a popular people search engine in the US. Journalists were also able to find several passwords to Voltzʼs email in databases that were leaked online. This information led to the White House adviserʼs profiles on Microsoft Teams, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Signal.
As for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, she was more careful with her data than her two male colleagues, journalists say. She blocked her data from commercial search engines that contained Hegsett and Waltzʼs data. However, her email address could be found on WikiLeaks and Reddit.
Gabbardʼs email address is available in more than 10 sources, one of which also contains a partial phone number that, when filled in, leads to an active WhatsApp account and Signal profile.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said that Gabbardʼs personal data was leaked nearly 10 years ago, that she had not used the platforms in several years and had changed her passwords several times. However, an investigation by journalists found that a private Google account belonging to Gabbard had only been used about two weeks ago.
To protect the private contact information of American politicians, Der Spiegel is not publishing the phone numbers, email addresses, and passwords it found. Furthermore, no checks were conducted to determine whether the email passwords were still active. The journalists informed Gabbard, Hegseth, and Waltz of their findings.
- Spiegelʼs investigation followed news that The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to a Signal chat discussing the US operation against the Houthis, apparently by White House national security adviser Michael Waltz.
- The Pentagon, the US intelligence and Trump say the secret chat did not discuss military plans. Thatʼs why The Atlantic published screenshots from the chat.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.