UK Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard has addressed concerns over classified operational plans being shared via Signal, following questions from the Defence Committee about how the UK would respond to a similar incident.
The exchange came in the wake of a major security blunder in the United States, where it was revealed that a journalist had inadvertently been added to a private Signal chat where senior US officials were discussing a planned strike on Houthi targets in Yemen.
The leak, which has since sparked controversy in Washington, exposed divisive exchanges between Vice-President JD Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, in which they reportedly criticised European allies and discussed military operations. Hegseth has denied that “war plans” were shared in the chat.
Against this backdrop, Mike Martin MP asked Pollard what actions would be taken if an Air Commodore and a senior official, Mr Wyatt, were found to be sharing classified operational plans on Signal.
While Pollard did not comment directly on how allies handle classified information, he made it clear that any breaches in the UK would have consequences.
“My general rule would be that if there are operational decisions that are being taken, we should all – regardless of our role within defence – take information sharing seriously,” Pollard said.
He made clear that any failure to follow security protocols would result in disciplinary action, adding:
“There would be a clear consequence and disciplinary process for anyone that wouldn’t be following those procedures.”
Pollard’s comments reflect growing concerns about the use of encrypted messaging apps for sensitive discussions within defence and national security circles. The US leak has already raised alarms about digital security failures at the highest levels, and while there is no suggestion of a similar breach in the UK, the Defence Committee’s questioning suggests that lawmakers are seeking reassurances.
So what punishments are given out for all of those missing laptops etc ?
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Did anything come from the leaked information on War Thunder, and the footage from the F-35 incident?
“the F-35 incident”
As Bernard Woolley explains so clearly, leaking is an irregular verb.
“Oh, that’s another of those irregular verbs, isn’t it?
I give confidential press briefings;
You leak;
He’s been charged under Section 2a of the Official Secrets Act.”
And from the lack of action the F35B ‘leak’ was an official leak.
But we could always set up a leak enquiry?
For which Sir Humphrey has the following sage advice
“The first law of political indiscretion, always have a drink before you leak; and
Never look into anything you don’t have to. And never set up an enquiry unless you know in advance what its findings will be; and
The ship of state, Bernard, is the only ship that leaks from the top.”
I’ll leave the final word to Bernard;
Hacker: Now about nailing that leak
Woolley: Oh, I’m sorry to be pedantic. But if you nail a leak you make another.
Didn’t Suella Braverman resign over something less serious than this?
She was sacked and the rehired 5 days later. Big punishment
I’ve read the report on The Atlantic’s website and I must say the journalist demonstrates a better understanding of security matters than the senior officials…
As for the US expecting reimbursement for their actions, a point apparently made during the numerous discussions, I would like to point out the US carried out these missions for her own interests. As many have pointed out, nations have interests that drive their actions.
The discussions, by the way, occurred over more than one day…
Remarkable.
Cheers CR
The US and Israel fucked up the Red Sea, we should be billing them.
Comical.
Guess the Europeans can reopen their shipping lanes to the Middle East and China all on their own.
It’s yet to be demonstrated that the US can do it on their own either. Token air strikes isn’t going to solve anything.
So Islamic Iran/Houthis attacking civilian ships is fault of others?
There are a number of security breaches in this incident.
1) The most senior officials in the US government were sharing state secrets and operational level intelligence on an unsecured platform that is known to have been penetrated by both the Russians and China.
2) one of the individuals accessing and responding to this discussion was actually in Russia at the time responding via an unsecured route while in a nation that would have been trying to monitor his every conversation.
3) the access was open and not managed by a security expert, so a senior politician gave access to a reporter.
4) This was a communication not monitored and audited by the US government or recorded as part of the record.
From this and the content the UK government has a number of learning points
1) potentially UK shared intelligence is at risk with the present US administration. Any intelligence given to the US administration could have now been discussed and disclosed on a commercial platform that is known to have been breached by Russia and China. This puts UK intelligence assets and interests at a real potential risk and I suspect the security services are tearing their hair out trying to consider what information may have been put at risk in the last 3 months.
2) If UK jets had been involved in this attack and the operational details had been leaked through the 3 significant breach’s then it could have cost UK lives.. the fact the UK was providing air to air refuelling support could have put those platforms at risk. Any future US UK military collaboration will need to viewed through this lens.
3) The feelings of the most senior US decision makers about Europe and their willingness to support Europe has now been fully exposed to the world. They did not even want to do something that was directly in their national interest just because it could be perceived as helping Europe. This is far worse than anything said in public, because you can always but a different spin on things said in public.. such as they were trying to wake Europe up with hard words.. there is no spin on this.. in private to each other they have made it clear they wish to do nothing at all to aid European nationals.. infact they are even willing to consider harming their own national interest ( they have more ships go through than us) to show they would not help Europe… Putin would have essentially taken that as the messaging was correct, US involvement in NATO is dead. Europe need to very much take that message.. this is not posturing this is a core political belief, they believe the US European alliance does not exist.
4) the US view of it’s national interest has literally focused down to the high north, American continent and the pacific..and it’s only actually interested in its own immediate self interest in those areas.
In conclusion it’s now clear to the whole world it’s very likely the US will not get involved in a European conflict even if that involves those nations it calls allies. It’s even likely that it will pull away from the Middle East and Indian ocean.. unless it’s got an overwhelming direct interest to defend. MAGA essential dislike of Europe bordering on euro phobia of seems to be an actual engraved ideology.. finally there seems to be a profound lack of competence in the administration that puts anything shared with them in danger.
Every time I start to try and stabilise my view that the west can get over this as a cohesive entity and NATO is not finished, the Trump administration manage to reenforce my developing view that NATO is finished and that the US is now essentially a Neutral partner with shared interests at about the same level as India.
Not sure on the platform risk, signal has been demonstrated to be secure. The issue wasn’t the platform, it was the idiot users adding a someone that shouldn’t have been involved or more likely adding them deliberately for polictical reasons.
There not have been operational secrets shared.
Whose armed forces are sitting in Europe. I’d be amazed if we ask them to leave, our politicians will kick the can down the road.
And if they don’t pull out themselves?