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!"

Comments

It's a good idea and perfectly true.

[serviscope_minor]

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.

So what?

[Bert64]

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.

Re:So what?

[Freischutz]

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.

Well, let's see ... he might be discussing crooked business deals, tax cheating, election manipulations, hiring prostitutes for golden shower parties or other things that are not classified information but that would render him vulnerable to blackmail?

Re:So what?

[Moskit]

Intelligence obtained from "just chats with old friends" can be just as valuable as from classified communication.
Who are the friends?
Which one could extract some additional information in "just chat"?
Who has influence over president?

The "secured landline" would be likely used for communicating with other secured lines and blocked from calling regular ones.

Now please download and install this attached "supercontrol.dll" upgrade for your Linux, it will improve your mileage, trust me! What could be the problem?

Re:So what?

[gtall]

Who, at this point, doesn't know what motivates him. He has the depth of a piece of paper.

Re:So what?

[Ol Olsoc]

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.

Interesting intelligence can be pieced together from seemingly innocuous conversations. You can pick up state of mind, often people will reveal sort of unclassified information coupled with sort of other unclassified information, and put 'em together and what do you got? A classified breach. As well, there are often full fledged slips every so often And if not slips, things can become classified later.

And if it wasn't interesting, China and Russia and others would not be eavesdropping on the conversations.

If I was in that position, I would not use an insecure phone again until I was ex-president.

Re:So what?

[Ol Olsoc]

Intelligence obtained from "just chats with old friends" can be just as valuable as from classified communication. Who are the friends? Which one could extract some additional information in "just chat"? Who has influence over president?

You get it. More people to get information from and investigate, possible avenues of compromise, and of course, the occasional bragging slip.

Re:So what?

[SirSlud]

and he cant be, or there would be a much bigger fuss being made

Iron tight logic there.

That is some next level trolling right there

[rsilvergun]

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.

I think this was mistranslated

[sinij]

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.

Consider the source

[MrLogic17]

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.

Re:Consider the source

[Registered Coward v2]

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.

Next thing you know they'll offer to give us this big, beautiful horse statue to put on the White House lawn...

Re:Are you fucking serious?

[Ol Olsoc]

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.

Re:So Trump is EVIL but the ChiCOMS are Good

[PPH]

No. It is military slang that dates back to the Vietnam era, or even earlier. To distinguish the Communist Chinese from the Nationalists (Taiwan).