It was already alarming to know that Trump is using an unsecured Android smartphone on Twitter—alarming enough that I believe it’s an impeachable offense.
But it’s even worse than that. Yesterday, when I argued that Trump’s use of his trusty Galaxy amounted to a high crime, fellow Kossack stevemb commented with an even more alarming development. He shared an article from The Guardian that reveals Trump is almost certainly using a phone that is literally obsolete.
I dug a little more into this
at Liberal America. The folks at Android Central believe that Trump is using a Samsung Galaxy S3—a phone that last got a major software or security update
in 2015. Cybersecurity experts believe that as a result, it’s very easy for a hacker to rook Trump into installing malicious code that would turn his phone into a pocket-sized bug—allowing bad actors to listen in on classified conversations.
It’s very possible that this may have already happened. Lawfare’s Nicholas Weaver believes that the S3 is so insecure that it’s very likely
that phone has already been hacked—and that anyone in contact with Trump should assume that (s)he is being “actively recorded by foreign powers.” No one should have to make such a horrifying assumption.
Senator Ron Wyden thinks Trump’s behavior is “irresponsible in the extreme.” With all due respect, when the president uses a phone that is not only unsecured, but is literally too old to be updated, that isn’t just irresponsible. It’s grounds for impeachment.