Signal fire

If you smell something burning this week don’t be too concerned, it’s probably U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s ears.

I really, and I cannot stress this enough, REALLY didn’t want to discuss politics this or any week, but I don’t think we can let such a huge disruption in the security sphere pass by without comment. Operational Security (OPSEC) has been a guiding principle for members of the military since antiquity, and the word has entered the lexicon in the security world in a big way as organizations struggle to secure their businesses infrastructure from growing cyberattacks.

So, I can only imagine how some of my corporate security readers felt after hearing the news about a stray journalist being accidentally(?) included in a Signal conversation involving top secret military planning for operations in Yemen. I mean I know how I’d feel about as a journalist, go dust off that space I prepared for my Pulitzer, but the idea of such sensitive information being distributed at random on the digital equivalent of a Post-It note probably made a few CISOs' skin crawl.

I mean look, I use Signal too, but I use it to complain to my friends about movies and write grocery lists, I can’t in good conscience include “Great resource for military planning” on Signal’s resume.

To say nothing of the illegality of using this program to regularly delete all this information as a way to cover their tracks for I presume, inevitable war crimes, money laundering, or whatever new shenanigans the members of the current administration get up to. But I expect this whole affair will amount to nothing.

Remember Howard Dean? Remember Michael Dukakis? Political scandals used to be funny ha ha and not…whatever this is.