Signalgate: did iPhone contact suggestion lead to national security chaos?

It seems that Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of the Atlantic, may have Apple to thank for his brief inclusion in a sensitive White House Signal group chat discussing US strikes in Yemen.

An exclusive report by The Guardian has revealed a sequence of events that led to Goldberg’s accidental inclusion into a top-secret Signal group chat with top US officials on March 15th, 2025.

National Security Adviser Mike Waltz mistakenly saved Goldberg’s number months earlier under the wrong contact – Brian Hughes. Hughes is now a spokesman for the National Security Council, he was a spokesperson for the Trump campaign at the time.

Waltz’s iPhone allegedly suggested updating the contact. An extraordinary twist of events led to this erroneous addition.

First, in October 2024, Goldberg emailed the campaign about a story criticizing Trump. Second, Hughes forwarded Goldberg’s email to Waltz by text message, including the signature.

And third, while Waltz did not contact Goldberg, he ended up updating Hughes’ contact card with Goldberg’s number.

“According to the White House, the number was erroneously saved during a “contact suggestion update” by Waltz’s iPhone, which one person described as the function where an iPhone algorithm adds a previously unknown number to an existing contact that it detects may be related,” The Guardian report reads.

The rest is already known – five months later, Waltz created a Signal group which became a national security disaster. The journalist received detailed offense plans, including information about targets, weapons packages, and attack sequencing hours before the actual strikes commenced.

Waltz didn’t notice the mistake – for him it appeared he was adding Hughes to the Signal group chat named “Houthi PC small group.”

“If this claim is correct, then Goldberg would have appeared as “Brian Hughes” (with contact symbol) on Waltz’s phone, and as “JG” for all other members of the chat,” Thomas Rid, a cybersecurity expert, posted on Bluesky.

President Trump was allegedly considering firing Waltz. However, the “forensic review” by the White House IT office helped change his mind.

The explanation further confirms the security risks associated with using private smartphones for national security meetings.