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>Last year, Trump reportedly had an iPhone with just one app on it: Twitter. Can someone with more knowledge explain how is this a security nightmare? If he's

>Last year, Trump reportedly had an iPhone with just one app on it: Twitter. Can someone with more knowledge explain how is this a security nightmare? If he's not using it for email, if it's just for him posting his opinions onto Twitter, I'm not sure I follow why it's so bad?

antoncohen 9y ago
I believe the meaning is the opposite. The iPhone was secure, and Trump is now using his personal Android phone[1]. To quote Obama about his iPhone[2]: "this is a great phone, state of the art, but it doesn’t take pictures, you can’t text, the phone doesn’t work, you can’t play your music on it" [1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/01/post-inauguration-president-trump-still-uses-his-old-android-phone/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/01/post-inauguratio... [2] http://fortune.com/2016/06/10/president-obamas-new-smartphone-is-more-like-a-toddler-phone/ http://fortune.com/2016/06/10/president-obamas-new-smartphon...
giarc 9y ago
That sentence should probably be "with just one third party app on it". The phone probably has the standard set of Apple apps as well, including Mail.
- sseveran 9y ago
  The Trumpster is known to use email little or not at all. Maybe that has changed now but I would suspect not. https://www.cnn.com/2016/12/29/politics/donald-trump-computers-internet-email/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2016/12/29/politics/donald-trump-compute...
maltalex 9y ago
It’s a smart device with known (and unknown) vulnerabilities that’s always near the president. It probably has a browser, a camera, gps, and a microphone and it is always connected to Apple’s cloud. It’s a large attack surface if you’re a nation state. Oh, it’s also a phone. It makes un-encrypted calls, and is capable of sending and receiving messages.
- sli 9y ago
  I thought it was determined (well, alleged, with data) that Trump uses an Android device[1]. Has that changed? [1]: http://varianceexplained.org/r/trump-tweets/ http://varianceexplained.org/r/trump-tweets/
forapurpose 9y ago
The iPhone and any app on it can be exploited. The microphone can be remotely turned on, it's location can be tracked, etc. etc. We can evaluate the likelihood of attack based on the attacker's return on investment: If there's a $1 million secret and the attacker can get it for $0.1 million, that's a good deal; if it costs the attacker $2 million, then why bother? The value of accessing POTUS' information can't be overstated. It's the literal survival of nations, trillions upon trillions of dollars, the very course of the history of civilization. If foreign powers can access it, even if it costs them billions of dollars, they will. Even allies do it - the U.S. was caught hacking the German Chancellor's phone in the last several years. The same goes for others with the resources and the willingness to break the law, such as organized crime and less scrupulous buinsesspeople - you could easily make billions on the markets by knowing Trump's plans. And if your competitor knows and you don't, you are at a disadvantage. Also, it's a good source for blackmailing POTUS (an incredible but now conceivable thought) and for gaining similar information about the powerful people he meets with.
deleted 9y ago
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antoncohen 9y ago

I believe the meaning is the opposite. The iPhone was secure, and Trump is now using his personal Android phone[1]. To quote Obama about his iPhone[2]: "this is a great phone, state of the art, but it doesn’t take pictures, you can’t text, the phone doesn’t work, you can’t play your music on it" [1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/01/post-inauguration-president-trump-still-uses-his-old-android-phone/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/01/post-inauguratio... [2] http://fortune.com/2016/06/10/president-obamas-new-smartphone-is-more-like-a-toddler-phone/ http://fortune.com/2016/06/10/president-obamas-new-smartphon...

giarc 9y ago

That sentence should probably be "with just one third party app on it". The phone probably has the standard set of Apple apps as well, including Mail.

sseveran 9y ago
The Trumpster is known to use email little or not at all. Maybe that has changed now but I would suspect not. https://www.cnn.com/2016/12/29/politics/donald-trump-computers-internet-email/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2016/12/29/politics/donald-trump-compute...

maltalex 9y ago

It’s a smart device with known (and unknown) vulnerabilities that’s always near the president. It probably has a browser, a camera, gps, and a microphone and it is always connected to Apple’s cloud. It’s a large attack surface if you’re a nation state. Oh, it’s also a phone. It makes un-encrypted calls, and is capable of sending and receiving messages.

sli 9y ago
I thought it was determined (well, alleged, with data) that Trump uses an Android device[1]. Has that changed? [1]: http://varianceexplained.org/r/trump-tweets/ http://varianceexplained.org/r/trump-tweets/

forapurpose 9y ago

The iPhone and any app on it can be exploited. The microphone can be remotely turned on, it's location can be tracked, etc. etc. We can evaluate the likelihood of attack based on the attacker's return on investment: If there's a $1 million secret and the attacker can get it for $0.1 million, that's a good deal; if it costs the attacker $2 million, then why bother? The value of accessing POTUS' information can't be overstated. It's the literal survival of nations, trillions upon trillions of dollars, the very course of the history of civilization. If foreign powers can access it, even if it costs them billions of dollars, they will. Even allies do it - the U.S. was caught hacking the German Chancellor's phone in the last several years. The same goes for others with the resources and the willingness to break the law, such as organized crime and less scrupulous buinsesspeople - you could easily make billions on the markets by knowing Trump's plans. And if your competitor knows and you don't, you are at a disadvantage. Also, it's a good source for blackmailing POTUS (an incredible but now conceivable thought) and for gaining similar information about the powerful people he meets with.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]