Top Government Officials Can Use Disappearing Message Apps

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New guidance was issued after Chinese Communist Party-linked hackers targeted U.S. telecommunications systems. The guidance suggests apps that cause messages to disappear and allow officials to erase everything permanently.

FOIA, anyone?

On Wednesday, a federal agency issued urgent written guidance to top government officials and politicians to stop using standard phone calls and text messages immediately after Chinese hackers targeted significant U.S. telecommunications companies.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said in guidance that “individuals who are in senior government or senior political positions” should “immediately review and apply” best practices around using smartphones.

“Use only end-to-end encrypted communications,” it said, saying that these “highly targeted individuals” also “should assume that all communications between mobile devices—including government and personal devices—and internet services are at risk of interception or manipulation.”

They recommended a number of programs such as WhatsApp, Signal, iMessage, BrightChat, and others that already have end-to-end encryption.

China has always hacked, and you can always use your smartphone to encrypt. I hate to sound paranoid or conspiratorial, but Signal, What’s App, iMessage, and BrightChat allow you to program them for disappearing messages or invisible ink. Government employees are supposed to save their correspondence. I don’t trust them. Is this a new way to hide what they are doing? Certainly, some will do it for that reason.

The Obama and Biden administrations used aliases, and nothing was done about them.


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