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If you are wondering if other countries are intercepting calls by hacking the carriers, the article seems to mainly point the finger at malware. It said the pro

If you are wondering if other countries are intercepting calls by hacking the carriers, the article seems to mainly point the finger at malware. It said the protocol is to replace the phones with no backups every month or so. "Mr. Trump is supposed to swap out his two official phones every 30 days for new ones but rarely does, bristling at the inconvenience. White House staff members are supposed to set up the new phones exactly like the old ones, but the new iPhones cannot be restored from backups of his old phones because doing so would transfer over any malware."

komali2 8y ago
They have those guys taping together all of Trump's ripped up papers, surely they can get someone to essentially do manual data entry from one phone to the other?
jacobsheehy 8y ago
Makes it clear that this is not a technology problem, like most of the commenters here are assuming. There is no technology fix for a President* who actively tries to get foreign countries to destabilize our democratic elections. If they don't hack his phone, he'll go on TV and ask Russia to start the hack already. Just like he did before.
thinkling 8y ago
> the article seems to mainly point the finger at malware Actually the article says: > "But the calls made from the phones are intercepted as they travel through the cell towers, cables and switches that make up national and international cellphone networks. Calls made from any cellphone — iPhone, Android, an old-school Samsung flip phone — are vulnerable."
- fspeech 8y ago
  That is a good point. The paper didn't make it as black and white as I read. However in my mind intercepting calls without police power (thus carrier cooperation) is much harder to achieve.
  - bb88 8y ago
    The intelligence services are really clever in getting the information they need. Often, just like with other forms of security holes, they just need to be clever exactly once, and that might lead to months or years of intelligence. I also think of intelligence agencies are a little like magicians in how readily they will exploit someone's trust in reality.
    - fspeech 8y ago
      Right. Considering that calls can be intercepted at either end, just securing his end does not preclude the call from getting compromised on the other end. Maybe that is why the security people are not pushing back that hard, since it is fairly hopeless to limit him to only speaking over secured lines. Sure it is easy for him to access a secured line, but not the friends he wants to talk to.
      - bb88 8y ago
        > Maybe that is why the security people are not pushing back that hard And I quote: "Mr. Trump’s use of his iPhones was detailed by several current and former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so they could discuss classified intelligence and sensitive security arrangements. The officials said they were doing so not to undermine Mr. Trump, but out of frustration with what they considered the president’s casual approach to electronic security."

komali2 8y ago

They have those guys taping together all of Trump's ripped up papers, surely they can get someone to essentially do manual data entry from one phone to the other?

jacobsheehy 8y ago

Makes it clear that this is not a technology problem, like most of the commenters here are assuming. There is no technology fix for a President* who actively tries to get foreign countries to destabilize our democratic elections. If they don't hack his phone, he'll go on TV and ask Russia to start the hack already. Just like he did before.

thinkling 8y ago

> the article seems to mainly point the finger at malware Actually the article says: > "But the calls made from the phones are intercepted as they travel through the cell towers, cables and switches that make up national and international cellphone networks. Calls made from any cellphone — iPhone, Android, an old-school Samsung flip phone — are vulnerable."

fspeech 8y ago
That is a good point. The paper didn't make it as black and white as I read. However in my mind intercepting calls without police power (thus carrier cooperation) is much harder to achieve.
- bb88 8y ago
  The intelligence services are really clever in getting the information they need. Often, just like with other forms of security holes, they just need to be clever exactly once, and that might lead to months or years of intelligence. I also think of intelligence agencies are a little like magicians in how readily they will exploit someone's trust in reality.
  - fspeech 8y ago
    Right. Considering that calls can be intercepted at either end, just securing his end does not preclude the call from getting compromised on the other end. Maybe that is why the security people are not pushing back that hard, since it is fairly hopeless to limit him to only speaking over secured lines. Sure it is easy for him to access a secured line, but not the friends he wants to talk to.
    - bb88 8y ago
      > Maybe that is why the security people are not pushing back that hard And I quote: "Mr. Trump’s use of his iPhones was detailed by several current and former officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so they could discuss classified intelligence and sensitive security arrangements. The officials said they were doing so not to undermine Mr. Trump, but out of frustration with what they considered the president’s casual approach to electronic security."