All U.S. House representatives have banned the use of WhatsApp messaging services, as detailed in a memo distributed to House staff on Monday.
The notification to House staff indicated that “the Cybersecurity office deems WhatsApp problematic due to a lack of transparency regarding user data protection, insufficient data encryption at rest, and the potential security risks associated with its use.”
The Chief Admin Note suggested alternative messaging applications, including Microsoft’s Teams, Wickr, Amazon’s Signal, Apple’s iMessage, and FaceTime.
A spokesperson for META, the parent company of WhatsApp, stated: “We strongly oppose the stance taken by the highest administrative officers of the House of Representatives and recognize that members and their staff frequently rely on WhatsApp.
“WhatsApp offers end-to-end encryption by default, ensuring that messages can only be accessed by recipients and not even WhatsApp itself. This level of security surpasses that of most apps on the CAO’s approved list.
Signal, which employs end-to-end encrypted messaging similar to WhatsApp, has recently been involved in a controversy after Defense Secretary Pete Hegges shared sensitive information about a planned Yemen attack within at least two private Signal group chats.
One of these chats was initiated by national security adviser Mike Waltz and included senior U.S. security officials, along with journalist Jeffrey Goldberg from Atlantic. Other chats were organized by Hegges himself, involving his family and approximately 12 others.
The Pentagon previously cautioned employees against using Signal due to its technical vulnerabilities, as reported by NPR. A “OPSEC special bulletin” shared on March 18 warned that Russian hacking groups could exploit Signal’s vulnerabilities to surveil encrypted organizations and target “individuals of interest.”
Pentagon-wide communications permit the use of “third-party messaging apps” for sharing unclassified information, but prohibit their use for sending “private” unclassified details.
Reuters contributed to this report
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