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>Officials said the president has two official iPhones that have been altered by the National Security Agency to limit their capabilities — and vulnerabilities

>Officials said the president has two official iPhones that have been altered by the National Security Agency to limit their capabilities — and vulnerabilities — and a third personal phone that is no different from hundreds of millions of iPhones in use around the world. Mr. Trump keeps the personal phone, White House officials said, because unlike his other two phones, he can store his contacts in it. If this is truly the root cause of the issue, it should be relatively simple to rectify. ETA: aside from the obvious solution of getting his contacts on the secure phones, is there any reason he couldn't use a satellite phone to bypass insecure cell networks altogether?

deleted 8y ago
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jacobsheehy 8y ago
> If this is truly the root cause of the issue, it should be relatively simple to rectify. I think it's pretty clear, with the most charitable possible reading of this article and your comment, that the root cause is not an issue with contacts on his phone. The root cause is quite clearly a complete lack of respect that Trump has for the American people: He does. not. care. about the country's security or anybody in it. The root cause isn't some stupid argument about contacts in his phone. The root causes are arrogance [1], hate towards American people [2], and corrupted power [3]. I'll cite these. [1] He says he is the smartest person in the world and does not need to confer with experts about anything. Why would he need a secure phone then? [2] He has directly insulted American citizens who care about the national security risks he poses. He uses terrorist-like language to describe Americans. He doesn't care about his phone being hacked. [3] He acts like he thinks he is King. He acts like there are no rules for him, and the Republican Congress makes that fact true - for now. This has nothing to do with technology and the solution doesn't have anything to do with technology either.
komali2 8y ago
Do we actually trust the NSA to be better at security than Apple, especially if that "better security" comes in the form of "modifying the phone," whatever that means? Maybe they just set up a VPN or custom cell information on it? Can you do that on iPhone?
- ceejayoz 8y ago
  "Modifying the phone" likely means stuff like physically disabling the camera.
downandout 8y ago
It wouldn't matter. The weakest link in any chain is the one that will be attacked. They'll simply listen in on the other end (the friend's phone), since the calls themselves are not encrypted and it is unlikely that the government is going to pay for all of his friends to have secure phones/lines. This has likely been the case with all calls to all friends of all Presidents for many decades.

deleted 8y ago

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jacobsheehy 8y ago

> If this is truly the root cause of the issue, it should be relatively simple to rectify. I think it's pretty clear, with the most charitable possible reading of this article and your comment, that the root cause is not an issue with contacts on his phone. The root cause is quite clearly a complete lack of respect that Trump has for the American people: He does. not. care. about the country's security or anybody in it. The root cause isn't some stupid argument about contacts in his phone. The root causes are arrogance [1], hate towards American people [2], and corrupted power [3]. I'll cite these. [1] He says he is the smartest person in the world and does not need to confer with experts about anything. Why would he need a secure phone then? [2] He has directly insulted American citizens who care about the national security risks he poses. He uses terrorist-like language to describe Americans. He doesn't care about his phone being hacked. [3] He acts like he thinks he is King. He acts like there are no rules for him, and the Republican Congress makes that fact true - for now. This has nothing to do with technology and the solution doesn't have anything to do with technology either.

komali2 8y ago

Do we actually trust the NSA to be better at security than Apple, especially if that "better security" comes in the form of "modifying the phone," whatever that means? Maybe they just set up a VPN or custom cell information on it? Can you do that on iPhone?

ceejayoz 8y ago
"Modifying the phone" likely means stuff like physically disabling the camera.

downandout 8y ago

It wouldn't matter. The weakest link in any chain is the one that will be attacked. They'll simply listen in on the other end (the friend's phone), since the calls themselves are not encrypted and it is unlikely that the government is going to pay for all of his friends to have secure phones/lines. This has likely been the case with all calls to all friends of all Presidents for many decades.