Donald Trump is an active Twitter user, and we already know that he wields an iPhone to send out tweets whenever he feels like it. His unsecure Android phone was replaced by an iPhone soon after reports revealed he used to tweet from a device that would no longer take security updates.
But even if it’s safer than Android, the iPhone still isn’t impervious to hacks, and the kind of attackers that would want to spy on a sitting US president certainly know a thing or two about hacking Apple’s smartphones. And yet Trump is reportedly too lazy to have trained professionals secure his iPhones.
First of all Politico reveals that Trump uses at least two iPhones to communicate. One is for Twitter and a select number of news apps, and the other one is for calls only. Trump never seemed like the kind of guy who understands “the cyber.” But even if he did, someone else should ensure that his devices are secured at all times. However, the president doesn’t want that to happen, according to an official.
While aides have urged the president to swap out the Twitter phone on a monthly basis, Trump has resisted their entreaties, telling them it was “too inconvenient,” the same administration official said.
The president went as long as five months without having the phone inspected by security experts.
The White House Information Technology and the White House Communications Agency is the entity issuing these phones, and the office is staffed by military personnel. Swapping out an iPhone that needs inspection and updates for a brand new one should be an incredibly easy task, far from being “too inconvenient.” Too inconvenient would be waiting for half a year for Samsung to release the latest Android update.
A different White House official told Politico that the phone for voice calling is replaced on a regular basis, without specifying how often that happens. The same official seemed to confirm that Trump is pushing back against having his Twitter phone serviced, saying that “because of the security controls of the Twitter phone and the Twitter account, it does not necessitate regular change-out.”
Twitter isn’t hack-proof.
The report notes that the iPhone for voice calling has a camera and microphone, unlike the phones Obama used. Obama had his phone inspected for suspicious activity every 30 days. Hey, at least the GPS location tracker is disabled on all of Trump’s phones.
The West Wing official who spoke to Politico also said that “due to inherent capabilities and advancement in technologies, these devices are more secure than any Obama-era devices.”
iPhones aren’t hack-proof.
Politico revealed last October that John Kelly’s personal cell phone was hacked, without specifying whether it was an iPhone or Android device. Kelly turned his phones over to experts months after noticing the device wasn’t working properly.
