A prominent security analyst, Hamid Al-Hassan Hamid, has voiced profound astonishment at the widespread shock over the recent leak of sensitive WhatsApp communications involving a high-ranking military general and his team, declaring the platform inherently insecure for strategic discussions.
In a scathing assessment of current military communication practices, Mr. Al-Hassan Hamid insisted that the moment a message, be it text, voice, image, or audio, is sent on WhatsApp, it must be considered “public information.”
“I am shocked that people are shocked that the WhatsApp communication between the general and his team was leaked,” Hamid stated. “Let me tell you something, there is no secret on WhatsApp.”
The analyst underscored that information secrecy is the backbone of war and every military operation. He drew a historical parallel to the Second World War, highlighting the pivotal role of cryptography, the science of concealing information.
Hamid recalled studying the war extensively due to its reliance on encryption, citing the German Enigma machine and the subsequent creation of the Turing Machine by Polish mathematician Alan Turing, which successfully broke virtually every German code and ultimately contributed to the Allied victory.
He asserted that a consumer platform like WhatsApp has no place in discussions at the theatre of war.
In a strong recommendation for overhauling security protocols, Mr Al-Hassan Hamid proposed a radical solution for combat readiness:
“As a matter of fact, if I were the Chief of Defence Staff, no soldier would enter the battlefield with their personal mobile device.”
He warned of the catastrophic intelligence loss if a device is captured, killed, or simply lost: “Imagine the amount of information they will get.”
The security expert painted a grim picture regarding the deceased general’s captured phone, now reportedly in the possession of terrorists.
The terrorists would have access to a wealth of critical operational data, including battle plans, logistics, weapons inventory, and sensitive tactical situations. A Brigadier General commands a brigade, which consists of approximately 1,500 to 5,000 soldiers (2 to 5 battalions, with 500 to 1,000 men each). The general’s WhatsApp communications likely contain highly sensitive back-and-forth messages with his subordinates across this vast command structure.
Beyond the intelligence leak, Hamid raised serious ethical and operational concerns about the vulnerability of underpaid soldiers to enemy recruitment, especially when pitted against the apparent opulence of the political class.
Terrorist groups can now use the contact information from the device to recruit soldiers as informants or saboteurs “for a price.” He highlighted the dire financial situations many soldiers face, medical bills for a sick mother or a wife who has just given birth, suggesting that “a few thousand” could cause a soldier to “cave in.”
This mercenary vulnerability, he argued, is exacerbated by the apparent indifference of the political elite, who are “buying cars worth hundreds of millions for their singers and sidechicks.”
“How do you expect the war to end?” he concluded somberly.
