NSA Warned Trump Staffers Against Personal Email/Device Use; Were Ignored

from the biggest-phish dept

Blatant hypocrisy aside, the Trump Administration's use of personal email accounts isn't just a low-flying middle finger to public records laws. It's also a stupidly insecure method for handling sensitive communications.

Senior adviser Jared Kushner continued to use his personal email account -- albeit in a limited fashion -- after taking his official position. He did this despite being warned by the nation's professional spooks that doing so was a really bad idea. Josh Meyer reports for Politico:

The National Security Agency warned senior White House officials in classified briefings that improper use of personal cellphones and email could make them vulnerable to espionage by Russia, China, Iran and other adversaries, according to officials familiar with the briefings. The briefings came soon after President Donald Trump was sworn into office on Jan. 20, and before some top aides, including senior adviser Jared Kushner, used their personal email and phones to conduct official White House business, as disclosed by POLITICO this week.

As noted, the NSA also cautioned against the continued use of personal devices -- something that makes every admin official who still insists on using their own laptops and phones attack vectors for cybercriminals and state-sponsored attacks from unfriendly governments.

But whatever, it's just the nation's top intelligence experts talking. Use of personal devices and email accounts continued, despite admin staff being told to assume these were already compromised. At this point -- more than six months after that cautionary meeting -- it's likely bad guys are standing in line to access cycles on admin accounts and devices.

As Meyer notes, this isn't necessarily just a Trump administration issue. It's something that happens with every incoming president and their crew. No one wants to give up devices and email accounts and not many of them can be immediately convinced about the level of risk.

But the point remains: when the NSA explains what could possibly happen to insecure devices and accounts, its information is coming from a place of deep personal experience (as it were):

A second former U.S. intelligence official said that the NSA briefers understand how insidious the cyberespionage campaigns can be because they conduct similar operations against others.

So, it's not the only administration to play it fast and loose for the first several post-inauguration months. But it's the one that will (and should) take the most heat for it. For one, evidence is being amassed showing Russian interference and influence on the election run, if not on the administration itself. For another, it's an administration that found its way into office using Hillary Clinton's personal email server use as a springboard. The other problem is the Trump Team has decided to throw its energy into shutting down internal leaks rather than addressing its own security holes, which means info is probably being exfiltrated to state actors with something far more nefarious in mind than leaking docs to journalists.

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Filed Under: jared kushner, nsa, security