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TeleMessage, an Israeli firm providing an unofficial Signal message archiving tool utilised by certain US government officials, has halted all services following a reported hack.
Smarsh, Telemessage’s parent organisation, confirmed that all services have been temporarily suspended while it investigates what it claims to be a potential security incident.
Moreover, a spokesperson from TeleMessage stated that the company is looking into a potential security incident. Upon detecting the issue, the company claimed that it acted swiftly to contain it and enlisted an external cybersecurity firm to assist in its investigation.
TeleMessage halted its services to avoid potential risks caused by the purported cyberattack.
According to reports, all TeleMessage services have been suspended as a precautionary measure. Still, other Smarsh products and services remain fully operational.
The company pledges transparency and will provide updates as they become available, expressing gratitude to customers and partners for their trust and patience during this period.
TeleMessage offers secure mobile messaging services for businesses, featuring tools to archive messages exchanged via secure end-to-end encrypted messaging applications like Telegram, WhatsApp, and Signal.
This announcement follows a request to validate a 404 Media report indicating that a hacker gained access to archived direct messages and group chats using TM SGNL, TeleMessage’s unofficial Signal version, which the former US national security adviser used to archive his Signal messages.
On the other hand, a hacker stated that the process took about 15-20 minutes and was not difficult. In addition, it explained that if it could have found this in less than 30 minutes, then anyone else could, too.
Hence, it does not tell who knows how long it’s been vulnerable.
While the hacker claims that messages from cabinet members and the former US security advisor were not compromised, the retrieved data reportedly includes contact information for government officials, some message content, and TeleMessage back-end login credentials.
Although communications from Trump administration officials were not part of the breach, shared screenshots connect the stolen data to US Customs and Border Protection, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, and various financial institutions like Scotiabank.
