The U.S. House has banned WhatsApp from official devices, calling it a cybersecurity risk.
The U.S. House of Representatives has officially banned WhatsApp from all House-managed devices, citing cybersecurity concerns. A memo issued Monday by the Office of Cybersecurity called the app a “high-risk to users due to the lack of transparency in how it protects user data, absence of stored data encryption, and potential security risks involved with its use.”
The directive, endorsed by the chief administrative officer, advised staff to use alternatives like Microsoft Teams, Amazon’s Wickr, Signal, Apple’s iMessage, and FaceTime.
Meta, WhatsApp’s parent company, has not yet commented.
Meanwhile, Signal—another end-to-end encrypted app—has come under scrutiny after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly shared details of Yemen strike plans in private Signal group chats. One included Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg by mistake.
Though Signal encrypts data, an “OPSEC special bulletin” from March 18 warned that Russian hackers could exploit technical flaws. The Pentagon stated Signal must not be used for transmitting “non-public” unclassified data.