14 DAY TRIAL // Donald Trump’s @POTUS Twitter account is linked to a Gmail account, and that’s quite an interesting choice since it’s pretty clear it’s not a government-issued address unless things have somehow changed over at Mountain View.
Security measures taken by the new administration over at the White House has gotten all tech-savvy people confused, not knowing whether to laugh, cry or face-palm. Hackers have gone to the trouble of checking out the Twitter accounts of several members of the administration, only to find that Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Mike Pence and even the Press Secretary Sean Spicer were using personal email accounts to log into their brand new, official handles.
Hacker WauchulaGhost, who’s known for taking down over 500 ISIS Twitter accounts, said he wouldn’t hack the new President of the United States or the rest of the group above, but he wanted to issue a warning - upgrade your security!
Gmail, poor security, and personal phones
Things don’t seem to have changed much over the past few days, but one question arises - how can they disregard national security in such a manner? Sure, Gmail is pretty safe, but it can be hacked. Hackers aren’t going to go to the trouble of going head to head with Google to hack into the servers and getting the information they need that way, but they can (and will) take down individual accounts if they put their heads to it. That means that Trump’s main form of communication could be taken over in no time just because he chose to disregard security features within Twitter and those of the White House.
Private emails never bothered anyone, right?
It’s not exactly the same thing as using a private email server to discuss classified topics, which Trump has used as a main campaign point, but it indicates a lack of understanding of proper online security and general security rules for those entering the office.
To add a further point, there have been numerous reports quoting unnamed White House sources, saying Trump has yet to give up his personal Android phone. Moreover, the story goes that he sits around the White House in the evening on his old phone tweeting away like he’s always done, disregarding security measures imposed by someone holding such a high position.
There were also numerous blunders and ridiculous messages coming from the White House members surrounding the president. For instance, earlier today, Press Secretary Sean Spicer seems to have tweeted his own password.
Alternatively, he may have tweeted that particular combination of letters and numbers (n9y25ah7) by mistake because no one managed to log into the account with it. Since the email address used for the account was already known thanks to WauchulaGhost, it would have taken about two seconds to log in.
Here’s to hoping that a little more consideration will be given to cybersecurity from here on out.