DHS ditched software that archived officials’ electronic messages

he Department of Homeland Security in April disabled third-party software that automatically archived SMS, Signal and WhatsApp messages sent by senior agency officials, according to court filings made public this week, raising questions about DHS compliance with federal recordkeeping laws.

The revelation of DHS’s move to ditch the TeleMessage archival tool was revealed in sworn testimony by Michael Weissman, the executive director of the Chief Data Officer Directorate within the agency’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, in the case American Oversight v. DHS in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

According to Weissman, use of TeleMessage — which DHS deployed from Sept. 29, 2023, to April 9, 2025 — was halted because of “cybersecurity failures.” The software had lessened the burden on agency officials to archive their communications, in addition to easing the work of responding to discovery and Freedom of Information Act requests.

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