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Worried About Trump iPhone Eavesdroppers? China Recommends a Huawei (reuters.com)
China's foreign ministry has some suggestions for the Trump administration if it is worried about foreign eavesdropping on the U.S. president's iPhones: use a Huawei handset instead. Or just cut all forms of modern communication with the outside world. From a report: The riposte came after the New York Times reported that American intelligence reports indicated that Chinese and Russian spies often listen in on President Donald Trump when he uses his Apple cellphones to chat with old friends. Aides have repeatedly told him that his cellphone calls are not secure, but although the president has been persuaded to use his secure White House landline more often, he has refused to give up the phones, the Times said. Trump called the Times report incorrect on Thursday, and dismissed it as "long and boring." "I only use Government Phones, and have only one seldom used government cell phone. Story is soooo wrong!" Trump wrote on Twitter. In a later tweet, he said, "I rarely use a cellphone, & when I do it's government authorized. I like Hard Lines. Just more made up Fake News!"
Leave that stuff for the jerks on Twitter
They're right: once you know for sure something is happening then you can stop worrying about it. It's the doubt and uncertainty that's the real killer. Their suggestion certainly removes all doubt on the matter.
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It says he uses the phones to talk to old friends, people he was in regular contact with long before he became president. So long as he's not discussing classified information (and he cant be, or there would be a much bigger fuss being made) then whats the problem?
Even if using a government supplied landline, if hes calling regular phones then it can't be encrypted end to end, it has to traverse the public telephone network at some point where it could be subject to interception.
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My favorite thing to come out about this story is that the intelligence community doesn't care that our President's communications are bugged because he doesn't bother listening to the briefings. It's like that is Dilbert joke where he'd have to be smarter to do something stupid.
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I think what China said was mistranslated. They intended to say that if Trump wanted to make sure that China could eavesdrop, then he should have went with a Huawei phone.
China, being one of the largest sources of spying threats, recommends a specific phone. That they happen to make.
They assure us that they can evesdrop on every other phone, except the one designed & made in their country, with no outside audits.
Sure. We'll get right on that.
As far as security and privacy, I mean.
Both gather user information and send it somewhere on internet servers which are very likely exploitable.
Both have 0-day exploits.
The idiocy of the user is exactly the same.
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
The phone brand doesn't matter. If it's on wireless it can be stingrayed, and it's already been shown that DC is full of them.
This is slashdot.
I now get modded to -5 by the communists who happen to have mod points.
Corporatism != Free Market
I thought it was funny. I thought it was velly funny. Just a little playful banter between countries.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
This isn't a legitimate suggestion to use a Chinese phone. This is a passive agressive quip at the Americans for heaping shit on China only to have their own equipment allegedly tapped by a foreign power.
were an issue. You're a high priority target you don't get to take chances.
Well, not the "same" issue. Private email servers are used throughout Washington and somehow stopped being an issue after 2016. I wonder what changed?
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and he cant be, or there would be a much bigger fuss being made Are you kidding? You don't think that he tells random people all sorts of US secrets? He fucking Tweets nation secrets. If we didn't have a ridiculously corrupt Congress, he's be serving life behind bars for treason.
Treason is only applicable during war. We bandy that word around too much.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
If the public phone system is too insecure for a president to use, then it's probably too insecure for anyone else to use, too. Maybe it should be .. oh, I don't know .. fixed?
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Treason is only applicable during war. That's not true: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court."
Sounds like an interpretation on your part. Others may vary. I and many others give the "only" part the most weight.
This doesn't mean that Trump or any president cannot be prosecuted for espionage type crimes.
Also, an interesting thing is that if he were to pardon himself - a possible scenario of doing that and being upheld now by the Supreme court, it would have to be remembered that to accept a pardon, admission must be made that the crime was committed.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Something like 95% of his tweets are sent from an iPhone. Do you think that he keeps it just for tweets?
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Dumbing down the message to reach the Trumper population is a good idea, but somehow I don't think this one will work.
'Or just cut all forms of modern communication with the outside world.'
I wish.
Treason is only applicable during war. We bandy that word around too much.
Ok, fair enough. So then what's the name of the crime we're talking about: leaking secret information? You know, the crime that he is still accusing Senator Hillary Clinton of?
Clinton's transgression is at the level of a security violation and reprimand. The "lock her up" is political theater. If workers were all jailed for that level of thing, wee'd have to live in a Stalinesque society, because no one would voluntarily work in such a field. As for Trump, I don't have the evidence, so really can't say. There are a number of people who have the discretion to divulge classified information or make it public. Trump is at that level. Actually Clinton was as well, although her issues were not purposeful. It's a Little Joe Nuclear hand grenade level power though, which might cause the discloser big problems.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
That's what this is, plain and simple: Huawei is mocking Trump, and all of us here in the United States along with him. That is what this man has done to us: made us a laughingstock, all over the world.
we could sure use some transcripts of Trump's phone calls...
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Morons...
The Chinese is recommending a phone to avoid evesdropping? WTF!!!
You made
Numerically most of us didn't. We just have a system that allows that.
I'm guessing if Twitter was the only real hold-up, the NSA would make him a special hardened Twitter app for his phone.
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Treason is only applicable during war. We bandy that word around too much.
In the US, Article III of the Constitution says, "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court."
So waging war against the US is one form of treason. The other is in "adhering to" or giving aid and comfort to the enemy. So, war is not explicitly required for all forms of treason.
Moreover, treason is often associated with sedition, and that opens up a whole broader can of worms.
Get a Huawei, then it's guaranteed