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Congressman Calls For Probe Into Trump's Unsecured Android Phone (cnet.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNET: President Donald Trump regularly makes news because of his tweets. Now a congressman is making news because of the device the president reportedly uses to tweet. On Friday, Congressman Ted Lieu, a Democrat from Los Angeles, wrote a letter to the House Oversight Committee requesting an investigation into Trump's cybersecurity practices. In particular, he calls out Trump's apparent decision to keep using his personal Android phone instead of a secured phone the Secret Service issued him for his inauguration. The letter is also signed by 14 other members of Congress and calls for a public hearing to discuss the issues. "The device President Trump insists on using -- most likely the Samsung Galaxy S3 -- has particularly well documented vulnerabilities," the letter says. "The use of an unsecured phone risks the president of the United States being monitored by foreign or domestic adversaries, many of whom would be happy to hijack the president's prized Twitter account causing disastrous consequences for global security. Cybersecurity experts universally agree that an ordinary Android smartphone, which the president is reportedly using despite repeated warnings from the Secret Service, can be easily hacked."

30 of 507 comments (clear)

  1. How could you tell? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Our president's postings are so bizarre.

  2. Go visit Mar-a-Lago and complain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well if you're unhappy with it, why not pay the $200k fee and go tell the President yourself!?

    He's selling access to himself for that. No kidding.

    His home, Mar-a-largo is a private club, you pay $200k to join and have wide access to the President (fee was doubled when he because President and a suite was renamed "President Suite").

    It's a dog and pony show folks.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/video_and_audio/headlines/39006681

    1. Re:Go visit Mar-a-Lago and complain by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's funny how everything that his supporters claimed Clinton was doing, the unsecured phones, the pay-for-access, the cronyism, the corruption, is all stuff that we have absolute proof Turmp is doing barely a month into his presidency.

      The guy is so brazen about it, he doesn't even bother to cover it up at least try to avoid doing the exact same thing he was criticising her for months earlier.

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    2. Re:Go visit Mar-a-Lago and complain by flopsquad · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's funny that all of this stuff wasn't a big deal to you hyper-partisans when Clinton was accused of them, but they suddenly are a big deal when Trump is doing them.

      Your rah-rah-my-team bullshit is fucking up our world. It's a big deal when both teams do it. (And I'm calling you out, Ami, because you were defending Clinton for these very same things.)

      It's perfectly valid to point out and criticize hypocracy, regardless of whether one personally agrees or disagrees with the underlying position.

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    3. Re: Go visit Mar-a-Lago and complain by guruevi · · Score: 4, Informative

      The Trump trademark was granted several months ago, when the majority of news sources still put him at a huge disadvantage in the polls. There was a 3 month period where you could dispute the trademark which ended last week.

      Making up stories does nothing good to the press, it only makes people distrust them more.

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    4. Re:Go visit Mar-a-Lago and complain by sg_oneill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "absolute proof"? Lol, you loonies are hilariously deluded.

      Project Veritas provides proof, ON VIDEO, of election rigging in the DNC and the leftists can't refute it so they just claim its faked even though they can't provide any proof of it being so. Yet, some vague rumor about what Trump is doing comes up, and all of a sudden it's "absolute proof".

      Why would I believe a serial liar like OKeefe who keeps getting caught again and again and again fabricating evidence for his shitty witchhunts, when multiple enquiries by people who are actually domain experts have said that no, there is just no evidence at all of it.

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    5. Re:Go visit Mar-a-Lago and complain by flopsquad · · Score: 4, Insightful

      hypocracy

      I see what you did there.

      Hasn't made it into the dictionary so far, but I can't think of another word for "Government by all the evil things you denounced to get you there in the first place."

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    6. Re:Go visit Mar-a-Lago and complain by quantaman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      > Why would I believe

      Because when the PV videos on staging violence came out, we found evidence that Zulema Rodriguez was employed by MoveOn to be in Arizona, we have a video of her blocking the road and lying to cops, and that corroborates the video?

      Your original source is a video by a guy who is famous for dishonestly editing videos... and yet you keep going back to him as a primary source.

      I have absolutely zero confidence that you know how to determine if a piece of evidence is true or relevant.

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  3. Re:too late by craigminah · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Elections have consequences" -- Obama

  4. Process already in place for fake Trump tweets by mykepredko · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think the problem for any potential enemies is that there seems to already be a process for dealing with Mr. Trumps bizarre proclamations on Twitter - the actual administration official responsible for the portfolio provides what is the correct information.

    This has happened at least a couple of times with the most recent one being Mr. Trump announcing a One State Solution for Israel - the UN ambassador just said that the US policy on the issue hasn't changed and the Two State Solution is the preferred approach.

    Other than his base, I think the rest of the world treats Mr. Trump's tweets the same way they would when read something strange and inexplicable that has gone viral from an eccentric old man that's gone viral.

    1. Re:Process already in place for fake Trump tweets by skids · · Score: 3, Funny

      Unless that official is Kellyanne Conway, in which case, she provides information which sounds correct and then Trump says, "no really we're going the batshit crazy route on this one, ignore her."

  5. Re:Just another mindless attack by OzPeter · · Score: 4, Informative

    What they forget is no one cares what phone Trump uses to tweet from. As long as he has a second phone to keep the classified stuff secure, who cares if he also keeps his personal phone? Not even the Democrats really care: this is just yet another tactic to try and smear a very popular president.

    Wouldn't you want to know if his personal phone was compromised and he was carrying it around all over the place?

    At the very least it acts as a big red target painted on his back where ever he goes. At the other end of the spectrum the microphone and camera record and pass on everything it sees and hears.

    This is security 101 and not political. That is Trump we are talking about makes it very easy to slip into an argument of "He's a doofus. No, you're just butthurt".

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  6. The Enemy Within by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    For decades, the Republicans have been warning us that there was a political party embedded with Freedom-hating people who would gladly sell us out to Russia.

    Seems like they knew what they were talking about.

    1. Re:The Enemy Within by LifesABeach · · Score: 3, Funny

      It will be really easy to tell when Trumps phone is being hijacked, the messages will be coherent. Also, is Trump on some kind of medication that the American people should be made aware of?

  7. Re:Just another mindless attack by OzPeter · · Score: 5, Informative

    Exactly and as it has been pointed out in the past. Top secret meetings have phones barred from entering rooms. I doubt he can get around that no matter how much of an asshole he is.. Hes not Stupid.

    Look at what happened in Mar-a-lago with the North Korean issue and the lackadaisical handling of documents in public. If they think that is reasonable then I don't put anything past this administration.

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  8. Re:Just another mindless attack by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Top secret meetings have phones barred from entering rooms. I doubt he can get around that no matter how much of an asshole he is.. Hes not Stupid.

    Read it and weep.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com...

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  9. Easily detected by belthize · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just watch his twitter feed. If he begins making sane, rational tweets you'll know it was hacked.

  10. Re: Just another mindless attack by OzPeter · · Score: 3, Informative

    Wouldn't you want to know if his personal phone was compromised and he was carrying it around all over the place?

    OMG! Then we'd know where he is every minute of the day! (You do know the President's daily schedule is public record, right?)

    OMG the presidents schedule is public. But what happens when there is a security issue and the president is whisked away to a secure location. Do you really think that the schedule is publicized.

    Or how about the use of Marine one to transport the president:

    As a security measure, Marine One always flies in a group of as many as five identical helicopters. One helicopter carries the President, while the others serve as decoys.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    So do you want that security measure invalidated?

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  11. Re:Just another mindless attack by AK+Marc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He has tweeted at a time he was scheduled to be in a Top Secret meeting. Either he's not attending his meetings, or he's tweeting during them. Either is gross negligence, so which gross negligence is it today?

  12. Be careful what you ask for.... by Rick+Zeman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people.
    On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House
    will be occupied by a downright fool and a complete narcissistic moron.

    ~H.L. Mencken

  13. Re:If his phone can easily be hacked, by Falconhell · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Of course, the Russians have hacked it, at least its secure from everyone but them.

  14. Re:He can just wipe it with a towel by GameboyRMH · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Along these lines, I think that Trump should be investigated over this at least nine times.

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  15. Re:Just another mindless attack by OzPeter · · Score: 3, Informative

    Because it's impossible that he could have an aide tweeting on his behalf.

    It's well known and obvious that aides tweet for Tump. Because aides use an iOS device and Trump uses and Android device. That doesn't change the issue.

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  16. Re:It Just by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It DOES matter. A hacked phone allows the hacker to access everything in the phone, like the camera, the microphone, the GPS. Trump is known to be using an out of date, hackable phone for his Twitter nonesense. Nevermind that Twitter-time should be over... you won, damn-it, now get on with doing the job instead of bitching about Hillary, who likely has already gotten rip-roaring drunk, yelled, screamed, ranted, fallen down, puked all over Bill and herself, slept it off for about a week, and moved on. Trump's still chasing invisible enemies with his Tweet phone. He needs to get down to the incredibly boring, tedious business of keeping the machinery of the country running smoothly and reliably. Instead, he's Tweeting on an old Android phone like he's still running for office, signing orders as vague as campaign slogans, and people charged with getting the job done don't know what the fuck. And all the time, Putin's listening and watching through his unsecure Tweet phone? Four years of this shit! Pray to Christ he doesn't start a war just so he can blame someone and throw all the mean people calling him names into camps!

  17. Re:Just another mindless attack by mean+pun · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm sure obama never had a vulnerable phone. As every time a phone is released there are GROUPS of hackers that try to break it as fast as humanly possible. Mind you it never takes more than a few days

    Well, at least the NSA damn well tried to give him a secure phone, and Obama cooperated with them. See the constant stream of news items on this subject during his presidency. You can always insist that it is not secure enough, no matter what was done. There is even a tiny chance that you are right, and that the hackers were smarter than the NSA. Your claim that it `never takes more than a few days' is just unfounded speculation, though. (To avoid using a stronger term.)

    In any case, surely you're not going to argue that this is equivalent with a president who refuses to give up his civilian phone that is known to be insecure?

  18. Re: I got a probe for ya.... by religionofpeas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, according to his own words, he should be locked up in prison.

  19. Re:If his phone can easily be hacked, by religionofpeas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There's still a problem with GPS tracking and remote activation of microphone and camera.

  20. Re: Just another mindless attack by Ly4 · · Score: 3, Informative

    But if they are whoever tasked at keeping the situation secure should be fired.
    Nobody was fired after this:
    https://www.washingtonpost.com...

    The president gets to make the rules - everyone else just gets to make suggestions. So if Trump wants to overrule someone who tells him to not bring his android phone into a SCIF, he can. And the Mar-a-Lago example indicates that he might be willing to do exactly that.

  21. Re:Oh No we can't have this! by TheDarkener · · Score: 4, Informative

    Obviously Hillary can NOT run a private email server without a lot of negative publicity and essentially costing her the election. But oh, SHE did it, so anyone else who does it shouldn't have the same negative publicity?

    You're fucking stupid.

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  22. Re:too late by swillden · · Score: 4, Insightful

    after 8 years of Obama we have more racial tension than ever before

    No, we don't. All of that racial tension you're seeing was already there. What happened was that having a black president encouraged black Americans to speak up about the ways in which they're systematically oppressed, which means that you are now more aware of the existing racial tension.

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