The encrypted app has become a contentious issue in Washington, amid leaks from the White House and worries about bypassing official record keeping rules of those in office. Senate staff are exempt from those rules, however.
Last week, the Senate also moved to switch every elected senator’s domain to HTTPS by default. HTTPS protects webpages with a secure and private connection so that users can be sure that the page has not been spoofed or hacked.
“I have long argued that strong, backdoor-free is an important cybersecurity technology that the government should be embracing, not seeking to regulate or outlaw,” Wyden wrote in the letter. “My own Senate website, which has used by default since 2015, was the first Senate website to do so. With the transition to default for all of the other Senate websites and the recent announcement by your office that the end-to-end messaging app Signal is approved for Senate staff use, I am happy to see that you too recognize the important defensive cybersecurity role that can play.
Wyden added that he “looks forward to seeing further improvements to the Senate’s cybersecurity.”
