A US Congressman is blasting the Signal messaging app as “not secure” by admitting that hackers hijacked his own account after he fell for a phishing scheme.
On Wednesday, outgoing Rep. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska) went out of his way to urge other US officials to avoid Signal. Russian state-sponsored hackers have been targeting that app, and Bacon is apparently among the victims.
In response to a tweet about Trump administration officials using Signal to discuss sensitive topics, Bacon wrote: “Signal is not secure and not good for sensitive communications. I was notified by law enforcement and House cyber experts that Russia hacked my Signal months ago.”
Still, blaming Signal isn’t exactly fair, since the hijacking attempts have occurred more often due to human error than to any software vulnerability. Bacon’s tweet arrives days after the FBI issued an alert, warning that Russian hackers continue to target “individuals of high intelligence value” by trying to hijack their Signal accounts. Bacon is the chairman of the House Armed Services Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation (CITI) subcommittee.
The hackers haven’t broken Signal’s end-to-end encryption; instead, they’ve been using phishing messages that impersonate Signal customer support or a Signal support bot to dupe victims into handing over access. Similar “social engineering” tactics have long bedeviled all kinds of platforms, enabling hackers to hit major corporations and government agencies.
The FBI alert notes that the phishing messages have focused on tricking users into sending their Signal backup recovery key, which can be used to restore the user’s chats on a new phone.
(Credit: Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images)
Russia’s targeting of Signal has been vast, ensnaring as many as 300 people in Germany, including high-profile politicians. Bacon’s tweet was in response to a new article in The Atlantic that documented how several Trump administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, used the Signal app last year. One Signal group chat was set to auto-delete messages after eight hours, seemingly violating laws on government record preservation.
Last year, the White House’s use of Signal also sparked an embarrassing gaffe after a Trump official accidentally added The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief to a group chat that focused on confidential military matters.
The use of Signal in the US government has been controversial since it’s technically a commercial messaging app and shouldn’t be used to communicate confidential information. But US lawmakers and officials have actually encouraged its use for non-classified matters, citing its end-to-end encryption, which prevents Signal or any ISP from decrypting the messages.
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The encryption keys only reside on the smartphones of Signal chat users. But as the saying goes in cybersecurity, humans are often the weakest link. Last month, Bacon told Politico his Signal app was compromised because hackers impersonated a close acquaintance.
To stop the threat, Signal has added new built-in safeguards to warn users about risky unsolicited messages. “Remember that no one from Signal Support will ever send you a message request or ask for your registration verification code or Signal PIN,” the nonprofit behind the messaging app said in April.
Examples of the phishing messages. (Credit: FBI)
Bacon also told Politico that “he was not concerned that Moscow had siphoned any classified information from his account because he doesn’t use it to share or store sensitive information.”
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Michael Kan
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I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.
Since 2020, I’ve covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I’ve combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink’s cellular service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I’m now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I’m always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.
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