Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth may have exposed U.S. troops to foreign intelligence.
The Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General issued a report Wednesday calling out the failure to protect sensitive communications and location information, saying there are major security weaknesses in the Pentagon’s $2.67 billion cell phone contracts, The Daily Beast reports.
The Pentagon didn’t check if phone companies were protecting data that could reveal soldiers’ locations and who they were speaking with, the report found. DOD officials also didn’t review the companies’ security checks before renewing contracts. The independent oversight agency concluded that hackers had the ability to “map entire communication networks within the [Department of Defense], pinpoint sensitive locations like safe houses or command posts, and expose operational vulnerabilities, significantly compromising national security.”
The office’s investigators found that DOD officials were aware of security vulnerabilities regarding text messages sent to and from military phones, and the possibility that bad actors could intercept them. Despite this, the department “had not issued policy for protecting text messages.”
In response to the report, Democrats in Congress have raised concerns about the Pentagon’s security issues with cell phones.
“I remain concerned that our servicemembers remain at risk from the military’s insecure communications and look forward to seeing what else the Inspector General finds,” Senator Ron Wyden told The Daily Beast. “I’ll continue to watchdog DOD to make sure they follow through on the Inspector General’s findings and finally secure their communications.”
The report found that the DOD has not yet addressed the security vulnerabilities, arguing internally over whose responsibility it is and failing to offer explanations about what it is doing to implement solutions. Maybe Hegseth and other top DOD officials should be focused on these security risks rather than pushing out trans service members, making bad workout videos, or obsessing over hormones.