Described as more dangerous than the nuclear codes, Donald Trump’s old and unsecured Android phone is still pressed to his ear weeks after he took over America’s top job.
If you’re one of the cyber security experts currently perusing the IT and Telecommunications vacancies on s1jobs, you’ll know explaining unseen threats to a less than tech-savvy audience is not easy – never mind trying to make this clear to the most powerful man in the world.
But the fact is Trump’s Samsung Galaxy S3 could be hacked by enemies of the state – aka bad hombres – and used for their own purposes.
This comes hot on the heels of Hillarygate, centred on the former Secretary of State’s use of a private email server.
The bottom line is, if you work in cyber security, you don’t just need exceptional IT skills – you must also have a persuasive line in sales chat in order to get people in power to listen to you.
Otherwise headstrong head honchos will carry on doing things their way – with potentially catastrophic results.
Cyber security experts have not been slow to point out the risks.
“It’s just crazy that the president is interacting with such an out-of-date and likely insecure device,” said Matthew Green, a computer science professor at Johns Hopkins University.
“His off-the-shelf Android could potentially become a room bug without his knowledge,” said Bruce Schneier, one of the world’s foremost cybersecurity experts. “An attacker could certainly hijack his apps.”
Hackers could also use the phone to covertly track his location, tweet fake news, eavesdrop through the camera and microphone and infect other officials’ devices with implanted malware.
Sadly, none of this has cured The Donald of his Twitter habit. Hardly a day goes by without the President of the United States tapping out a message to his supporters and detractors.
What’s really odd about this, however, is that in other ways the President is IT risk-averse. He prefers scribbling notes on paper instead of committing them to email and has talked about using couriers for important documents rather than trusting them to the internet.
As a cyber security expert you can probably see the flaws in these methods, too.
So it’s your next job to ensure you’re one step ahead of the hackers to stop them dipping into bank accounts, stealing identities or triggering a fire sale – the all-out collapse of the systems that keep the world spinning and allow Trump the freedom to Tweet.
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