
Customs and Border Protection Confirms Its Use of Hacked Signal Clone TeleMessage
Lily Hay Newman
created: May 7, 2025, 9:03 p.m. | updated: May 10, 2025, 2:21 p.m.
The United States Customs and Border Protection agency confirmed on Wednesday that it uses at least one communication app made by the service TeleMessage, which creates clones of popular apps like Signal and WhatsApp with the addition of an archiving mechanism for compliance with records-retention rules.
“Following the detection of a cyber incident, CBP immediately disabled TeleMessage as a precautionary measure,” CBP spokesperson Rhonda Lawson tells WIRED.
In the days since the photo was published, TeleMessage has reportedly suffered a series of breaches that illustrate concerning security flaws.
Analysis of the app's Android source code also appears to indicate fundamental flaws in the service's security scheme.
“Out of an abundance of caution, all TeleMessage services have been temporarily suspended.
1 month ago: WIRED