President Donald Trump is reportedly still using an unprotected cellphone, potentially leaving his communications and data vulnerable to foreign spies and hackers.
Administration officials have tried to convince the president that there needs to be better cybersecurity safeguards around his phone utilization, according to Politico. Trump feels the need to use two mobile devices, one of which is his personal cellphone that was a national security concern from nearly the first day he took office, as previously reported by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Trump now uses at least two iPhones, reported Politico, with one for outgoing calls only, and the other for Twitter and a selection of news sites. The offices of the White House Communications Agency and White House Information Technology are the ones who manage — or at least try to — the mobile devices. Aides have attempted, but sometimes failed to get Trump to exchange the phone used for social media and newsgathering every month because the president has often objected, arguing it’s “too inconvenient.”
That phone has at least at one point been unvetted by security officials for as long as five months, according to Politico. (RELATED: Ted Lieu Calls For Probe Into Trump’s Unsecured Phone)
It’s not just Trump’s personal technology that has caused consternation within the administration.
White House officials suspected towards the end of 2017 that Chief of Staff John Kelly’s cellphone was virtually infiltrated in some way and at some point in the year prior. Top staff mulled over in November the idea of banning all those who work within the administration from using personal mobile devices while on the job. The rule eventually took effect for the White House in January. (RELATED: Report: Trump Doesn’t Have A Web Browser On His Cell Phone)
There were also reports in January that Secretary of Defense James Mattis is considering the prospect of forbidding personnel from bringing personal cellphones onto the Pentagon premises.
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