President Trump has, allegedly, thrown caution to the wind and ditched security protocol by insisting he still gets to use his old Android handset.

Tim Skinner

January 26, 2017

2 Min Read
Trump defies security risks to keep “old, unsecured Android device”

President Trump has, allegedly, thrown caution to the wind and ditched security protocol by insisting he still gets to use his old Android handset.

According to the New York Times, Trump has made a point of clinging to an “old, unsecured Android phone”, despite the protests of his closest aides to close up any potential security vulnerabilities.

His insistence, apparently, stems from boredom. Less than a week into his tenure and the new Leader of the Free World and possibly the highest profile man/target on the plant is suffering from security-threatening, arse-aching boredom? That can only be a worrying thing for everyone involved.

When one thinks that Android platforms are almost perennially being targeted for malware and security exploits, it does seem like a particularly reckless habit to have. That’s only exaggerated when we consider that Trump doesn’t seem like your traditional technologically-advanced mobile super user – not according to our source Bernard.

The NYT reveal seems particularly interesting when we think that Barack Obama’s smartphone was, literally, the most secured brick-of-a-phone on the planet. In fact, the bespoke specs of the device Obama used while in office kind of negate the need for the word “smart” before the word “phone”. It might even be debating if his phone was really much of a phone at all.

Obama was never mega on Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook etc, but there’s a reason why. On a late-night chat show in America last June, Obama revealed the specs of his phone – and it’d make you remember how lucky we are to have such technology at our fingertips.

“This is a great phone, state of the art, but you can’t text, it doesn’t take pictures, the phone doesn’t work and you can’t play your work,” the former President said. Allegedly his phone could only receive incoming calls through a secure IP network, disconnected from cellular network and with the camera deactivated/removed so as not to be hacked.

Perhaps Trump saw that, and swore that one day he’d be a President who WILL use his smartphone – that’s one thing he didn’t mention during the election.

About the Author(s)

Tim Skinner

Tim is the features editor at Telecoms.com, focusing on the latest activity within the telecoms and technology industries – delivering dry and irreverent yet informative news and analysis features.

Tim is also host of weekly podcast A Week In Wireless, where the editorial team from Telecoms.com and their industry mates get together every now and then and have a giggle about what’s going on in the industry.

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