One of the most basic tenets of cybersecurity is that you must “consider your threat model” when trying to keep your data and your communications safe, and then take appropriate steps to protect yourself.
This means you need to consider who you are, what you are talking about, and who may want to know that information (potential adversaries) for any given account, conversation, etc. The precautions you want to take to protect yourself if you are a random person messaging your partner about what you want to eat for dinner may be different than those you’d want to take, if, hypothetically, you are the Secretary of Defense of the United States or a National Security Advisor talking to top administration officials about your plans for bombing an apartment building in Yemen.
Your threat model is being authoritarian + a moron.
They’re using Signal with disappearing messages instead of official channels because they don’t want their conversations documented for accountability. It’s the same shit they relentlessly blasted Hillary for.
I was most disappointed when I read that he left the group chat. Missed opportunity for some top-class trolling:
Although that may have had him arrested/raided for accessing most secret information he lacks clearance for, so leaving upon finding out it was the real thing and not a joke group was the better move.
He didn’t “access” anything, it was sent directly to him.
But that obviously wouldn’t stop them from having him disappeared. Heck I don’t even think that’s off the table now
Probably not, especially now that he’s leaking the previously undisclosed classified information (that the people involved insisted was not classified). But them’s the brakes when you’re a journalist.
I think even the Trump administration is just about bright enough to realize that disappearing a top journalist wouldn’t go well for them. Especially if he never turned up again.
I really don’t think they’d care. Until someone shows them they’re not untouchable, why wouldn’t they?