Trump officials’ private data accessible online, says report: From passwords to phone numbers

Another security breach in the US? German news magazine Der Spiegel reported Wednesday that private data of top security advisers to US President Donald Trump can be accessed online.

It stated that cell phone numbers, email addresses and in some cases passwords used by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth can be found via commercial data-search services and hacked data dumped online.

The phone numbers and email addresses – mostly current — were in some cases used for Instagram and LinkedIn profiles, cloud-storage service Dropbox, and apps that track a user's location, news agency AFP reported while citing the German media report.

The Gabbard and Waltz numbers were reportedly linked to accounts on messaging services WhatsApp and Signal.

Der Spiegel said that left them exposed to having spyware installed on their devices.

Der Spiegel said the three officials had not responded to its requests for comment.

The National Security Council said the Waltz accounts and passwords referenced by the German magazine had all been changed in 2019.

It said it was even possible foreign agents were spying during the episode that has landed the trio in hot water: a recent Signal group chat on top-secret US plans for air strikes on Yemen's Huthi rebels on March 15.

Signal chat 'leak'

The Atlantic reported "about a massive Trump-administration security breach" on Monday.

Mike Waltz inadvertently included a journalist in the chat, The Atlantic magazine's Jeffrey Goldberg. The magazine more published details of the conversation Wednesday.

President Donald Trump and his top aides aren't denying that they started a chat group in Signal to talk about a military attack on Yemen. Instead, they are insisting the information wasn't classified because the data didn't include the location of the strikes or specific sources and methods.

(With inputs from AFP)