President Trump continues to be an active Twitter user, which is troubling to many people because according to the New York Times and others, President Trump is still using his Samsung Galaxy S3 which is so out of date that it doesn’t even receive security updates. It uses the Android 4.4 system. The most up to date version is 7.1.1. The hacking group Anonymous has publicly disclosed how to hack a Galaxy S3.
Concerns include hacking the President’s Twitter account and sending out fake tweets that could cause tremendous disruptions. Just this past week, the Video Twitter account of the New York Times was hacked and a message sent reading, “BREAKING: leaked statement from Vladimir Putin says: Russia will attack the United States with Missiles.”
In addition, if President Trump is still using his Samsung Galaxy S3 the phone would pose a risk of being hacked in a manner to steal information, listen in on conversations and disclose the President’s location among other dangers.
TIPS
Neither the President nor any spokesman of his has confirmed what phone he uses, however smartphone security should be a priority of all of us as well.
Here are some important tips for smartphone security:
- Have a strong password to lock your phone.
- Only download apps from legitimate sources such as Google Play in order to help avoid malware infected apps. Also, make sure you understand what permissions you have granted when you install particular apps.
- Back up all of the data on your phone and don’t store data on your phone that doesn’t need to be there.
- Update your smartphone’s operating system and all of the apps you use with the latest security updates.
- Install security software. Too many people have security software on their computers, but not their portable devices.
- Turn off WIFI and Bluetooth when they are not in use.
- Encrypt the data on your smartphone.
- Use dual factor authentication.
- Use a remote access feature on your smartphone so if it is lost or stolen you can lock it and delete data.