Reports have emerged that Mike Waltz, who serves as the National Security Advisor of the United States, may have exposed sensitive information on his Venmo account to the public. This news follows a separate incident where secret US war plans were inadvertently leaked to a journalist.
According to Wired, Waltz, a former Army Special Forces officer, did not secure his Venmo account details from the public eye until the afternoon of March 26. This revelation comes shortly after The Atlantic’s journalist Jeffrey Goldberg disclosed that he was mistakenly added to a group chat with several US officials discussing plans for air strikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen. These strikes occurred just hours after the conversations took place.
Goldberg mentioned that he was added to this chat by Waltz, who called the incident ’embarrassing’.
Former President Donald Trump stated that the texts did not contain ‘classified information’. However, Goldberg initially withheld details of the messages, fearing they might include information that could potentially harm American military and intelligence personnel.
After Trump’s comments, the full transcripts were released. Wired’s report now suggests that more sensitive information had been inadvertently shared with inappropriate parties.
The Venmo account allegedly displayed Waltz’s name and included a profile picture of him. It was linked to accounts of individuals known to be associated with him.
Wired’s analysis identified 328 personal and professional contacts of Waltz, including journalists, military officials, and lobbyists, like Waltz’s former deputy chief of staff Walker Barrett and Trump’s senior adviser Micah Thomas Ketchel.
Experts quoted by Wired warned that foreign intelligence services could potentially exploit this information if they accessed it.
Michael Ard, a former intelligence analyst now affiliated with the Johns Hopkins intelligence analysis program, stated: “The first thing you think of is the counterintelligence issue, right? And the security vulnerabilities. It kind of boggles the mind, in a way. It would be really easy for somebody to spoof a contact, and that is something the security industry has already been issuing notices on.”
The White House did not provide a comment to Wired’s inquiry, but the report noted that Waltz’s account, along with another under the name Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, was set to private following the inquiry.
Erin Mackey, a spokeswoman for Venmo, stated: “We take our customers’ privacy seriously, which is why we let customers choose their privacy settings on Venmo for both their individual payments and friends lists —and we make it incredibly simple for customers to make these private if they choose to do so.”