Pete Hegseth cannot get enough of Signal. The Defense Secretary used the encrypted messaging app at least a dozen times for official Pentagon business, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Hegseth and other members of the national security team have drawn scrutiny over their use of Signal to hold sensitive talks.

In one case, he told aides on the encrypted app to inform foreign governments about an unfolding military operation, people familiar with his management practices said.

The clone, TeleMessage, was the subject of a reported hack in which the contents of some direct messages and group chats were stolen.

The communications app TeleMessage, which was spotted on former US national security adviser Mike Waltz's phone, has suspended “all services” as it investigates reports of at least one breach.

TeleMessage lets users archive their chats in secure messaging apps. However, the hacker reportedly found that TeleMessage’s archived chat logs aren’t end-to-end encrypted, allowing them to access the contents of certain messages, government official contact information, and login credentials for the service’s backend.