Posted on 10/06/2017 8:51:49 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
White House officials believe that chief of staff John Kelly’s personal cellphone was compromised, potentially as long ago as December, according to three U.S. government officials.
The discovery raises concerns that hackers or foreign governments may have had access to data on Kelly’s phone while he was secretary of Homeland Security and after he joined the West Wing.
Tech support staff discovered the suspected breach after Kelly turned his phone in to White House tech support this summer complaining that it wasn’t working or updating software properly.
Kelly told the staffers the phone hadn’t been working properly for months, according to the officials.
White House aides prepared a one-page September memo summarizing the incident, which was circulated throughout the administration.
A White House spokesman said Kelly hadn’t used the personal phone often since joining the administration. This official said Kelly relied on his government-issued phone for official communications.
The official, who did not dispute any of POLITICO’s reporting on the timeline of events or the existence of the memo, said Kelly no longer had possession of the device but declined to say where the phone is now.
Kelly has since begun using a different phone, one of the officials said, though he relies on his government phone when he’s inside the White House.
Several government officials said it is unclear when — or where — Kelly’s phone was first compromised. It also is unclear what data might have been accessed, if any.
Kelly’s travel schedule prior to joining the administration in January is under review. The former Marine general retired in 2016 as chief of U.S. Southern Command.
Staffers reviewed the cellphone for several days and tried to decipher what had happened to it, the officials said. Many functions on the phone were not working.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Nothing electronic is safe understand that.
The guy wasn’t aware enough that he might be a target?
Quite possible for a General - oftentimes the higher ups can’t be told that they have to follow protocols.
I just asked this question on another thread. I suspect not only Kelly’s, but Trump’s entire administration is being surveilled, probably by his own agencies who are serving another master.
Time to go back to smoke signals.
I don’t understand out government anymore.
Who is responsible for internal security of communications.
They should be checking people’s computers and devices on a regular basis.
Hilary got away with running a private email server for years and nobody noticed. These things shouldn’t even be possible.
One key problem is that the best talent in IT security tends to view working for the government as a fate worse than death.
Probably how ALL the info was leaked out. Unless the White House puts the phones together in-house no one is safe. (and even then....)
His phone wasn’t updating for months and he didn’t mention it to anyone?
His phone wasn’t updating for months and he didn’t mention it to anyone?
Yes, what you said. I would ASSUME that to be the case, for months back now, probably well before the election.
LOL! I’ve never seen that before. :-D
What a DUFUS !
Give him the Podesta Award for the dumbest swamp dweller hacked by the Russians.
Podesta got phished by an email that only the most clueless would respond to.
Kelly, he probably responded to: “Click here for a free computer virus !”
My first guess would be the FBI/NSA/CIA. I suspect they bug everyone anywhere near Trump and feed the intel back to the deep state crooks.
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