The big question about "Signalgate" is how National Security Adviser Mike Waltz added The Atlantic’s Editor-In-Chief to a Signal chat that detailed Yemen bombing plans.

 

 

The big question about "Signalgate" is how National Security Adviser Mike Waltz added The Atlantic’s Editor-In-Chief to a Signal chat that detailed Yemen bombing plans.

 

According to The Guardian, Jeffrey Goldberg emailed the Trump campaign in October for comment on a story. Trump spokesperson Brian Hughes forwarded the email to Waltz (then a Florida congressman and Trump campaign surrogate) via text. 

 

The message included Goldberg's contact information, and Waltz "inadvertently ended up saving Goldberg’s number in his iPhone – under the contact card for Hughes."

 

On iPhones, Siri suggests “new contacts based on your use of other apps, such as email you receive in Mail and invitations you receive in Calendar.” The feature is enabled by default, and can add a "previously unknown number to an existing contact that it detects may be related," The Guardian notes.

 

Typically, you need to accept or reject this suggestion, though it may be easy to pick the wrong one if you're distracted.

 

If you're concerned about a similar mishap, you can turn off Siri suggestions via Settings > Apps > Contacts > Siri, and toggle off Show Contact Suggestions.