Top Trump Officials’ Private Data Leaked

Private contact details and personal data of U.S. President Donald Trump’s top advisors are easily accessible through commercial data search services, according to new reporting.

See Also: New Attacks. Skyrocketing Costs. The True Cost of a Security Breach.

National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have had their mobile numbers, email addresses and even some passwords leaked online, with most of the contact details still valid, according to the German news magazine Der Spiegel, which retrieved the data using commercial people search engines and hacked customer databases.

The revelations deepen national security concerns over top Trump officials’ use of the Signal chat app for classified purposes, raising questions about whether foreign adversaries have accessed Cabinet members’ private data or online accounts. Der Spiegel reported it was “particularly easy” to obtain the mobile number and email address of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth through a commercial contact database commonly used for sales and recruitment.

Earlier this year, researchers from Mandiant reported a rash of social engineering attacks by Russian intelligence against Ukrainian Signal users. The attacks involved sending a malicious QR code to users, allowing threat actors to link their own device to a victim’s Signal account, giving them perpetual future access to the full text (see: Ukrainian Signal Users Fall to Russian Social Engineering).

Gabbard’s email address was reportedly available on Reddit, Wikileaks and leaked over 10 times, along with a partial phone number that led to a Signal profile and active Whatsapp account when completed. ODNI, the White House and Department of Defense have not responded to multiple requests for comment. Gabbard’s office told the magazine “that she hadn’t used the relevant platforms for several years and that she had changed her passwords several times.“

The nonpartisan American Oversight organization on Tuesday sued Trump administration officials reportedly involved in a Signal chat group that discussed a military operation against Houthi targets in Yemen, arguing that they used Signal accounts to avoid complying with record keeping regulations.

Other recent reporting further reveals how even top-ranking officials are vulnerable to data leaks. New research from data deletion company Incogni found that most U.S. appellate court judges had extensive personal data – home addresses, phone numbers, relatives’ names and even case rulings – readily available on people search sites.