Report: Trump is still using his old, unsecured Android phone
President Donald Trump is still using the Android phone he tweeted with during and after his campaign, even though it's an unsecured device, The New York Times reports.
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The article, which documents President Trump's shut-in lifestyle in his first few days at the White House, is filled with juicy tidbits about our leader's household preferences. But the most interesting (and disturbing) part comes when we learn how he has elected to spend his downtime:
The story infers that this access is what led to the President's now-infamous tweet about the "carnage" gripping Chicago, which likely came in response to a segment on last night's edition of The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News.
If Chicago doesn't fix the horrible "carnage" going on, 228 shootings in 2017 with 42 killings (up 24% from 2016), I will send in the Feds!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017
Leaving the concerning content of the tweet aside, if Trump is still somehow using the Android device — despite the protests of his aides — it would be a potentially massive security risk. President Obama reportedly used a secure phone (which Obama likened to a child's toy) for his digital activities precisely because the risk of cyberattacks on the nation's chief executive — which could come by way of web-based malware or locally via wireless connections — are too great.
Last week the Times reported Trump had been forced to replace his beloved Android phone with a "secure, encrypted device approved by the Secret Service." Then, as remains the case now, the justification for the migration to a secure device was a matter of national security.
If President Trump is using an unsecured phone, it adds to the list of cybersecurity fails in his merely five-day old administration, including his cyber advisor being ignorant of public end-to-end encryption services and members of his senior staff reportedly using private RNC email accounts.