Photo: Chief of Military Intelligence Kirill Budanov (Getty Images) Author: Danila Kramarenko
Chief of Military Intelligence Kirill Budanov considers Signal the most secure of messengers. Despite the recent political scandal in the US.
This was reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to his interview with the YouTube channel “Factor of Victory”.
In particular, Budanov was asked which messenger is the safest for users – Telegram, Signal, Viber or WhatsApp.
“The safest? After recent events, no matter how strange it may seem, Signal is still much better as a messenger from what you listed. But if a person's phone is hacked (messengers are very rarely hacked), then it doesn't matter which messenger you have, because they've already logged into your phone,” he replied.
Budanov also noted that among telephones, push-button telephones are not the safest in this regard, because “GSM communication is intercepted with a 100% guarantee.”
What did Budanov mean?
In March, a political scandal erupted in the United States, triggered by an article by The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg. In it, he reported that the administration of President Donald Trump accidentally added him to a secret chat in the Signal messenger. The chat included Vice President J.D. Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and other officials.
The chat was called the “Houthi PC small group” and was created by Trump's national security adviser Michael Waltz for White House officials to coordinate U.S. military attacks on the Houthis in Yemen .
On March 15, hours before the airstrikes, Hegseth shared a detailed plan for the military operation, including details of targets and weapons systems. After the strikes, the group members sent congratulatory messages.
In the article, Goldberg raised concerns about the security of using Signal to coordinate operations. He argued that it potentially violated the Espionage Act, as Waltz had set up Signal messages to automatically disappear, and texts about official attacks are supposed to be recorded and stored. Additionally, Signal is not an approved platform for sharing classified information.
Adviser Waltz took full responsibility. Some high-ranking officials called for his dismissal. But in the end, the president said he “accidentally screwed up,” and the White House made it clear he remained an important part of the Trump team and “the scandal is closed.”
Let us recall that in the fall of 2024, Budanov called the popular Ukrainian messenger Telegram a threat to national security. For the reason that it has become the main source of news for Ukrainians, and information is often disseminated by anonymous channels that are not actually responsible for fakes and disinformation.
It should be noted that Ukrainian military and civil servants have been banned from using Telegram on official devices.
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