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When Trump Phones Friends, the Chinese and the Russians Listen and Learn

nytimes.com

41–50 of 97 posts

Re: When Trump Phones Friends, the Chinese and the Russians Listen and Learn

#41
post #21
post #9

Similarly to how agreed-upon overflights increase security (as your opponent knows you're not preparing an attack and/or are keeping to treaty obligations) one could consider this a good thing. Of course China is not currently a military threat to the US, at least at the level deserving attention of a US president (e.g. random encounters in the Spratleys are jostling, not escalation). I certainly don't think this is…

China isn't a military threat, but Russia has proved that military power isn't necessary to sow chaos and destabilize the US. You don't even need military-grade hackers.

Russia has "destabilized" the US? That is hyperbole at best, unless you know something I don't. What exactly are you referring to? They seem to have destabilized the US media, in the sense that they can't publish enough stories about Russia. But have they actually achieved anything in any real way?

Re: When Trump Phones Friends, the Chinese and the Russians Listen and Learn

#42

I wonder why Apple doesn't encrypt calls between iPhones. And subsequently work on an open encryption standard with Google et al. It's strange that Facetime and Messages and Whatsapp and others are end-to-end encrypted, but voice is not.

End to end encryption would not prevent malware from having access to your microphone.

Re: When Trump Phones Friends, the Chinese and the Russians Listen and Learn

#43
post #27
post #9

Similarly to how agreed-upon overflights increase security (as your opponent knows you're not preparing an attack and/or are keeping to treaty obligations) one could consider this a good thing. Of course China is not currently a military threat to the US, at least at the level deserving attention of a US president (e.g. random encounters in the Spratleys are jostling, not escalation). I certainly don't think this is…

In surprised to hear someone say China is not a military threat to the United States. Can you expound on this? For example, I believe China could easily organize and fund far more terrorist attacks than, say, bin laden ever did. Furthermore, their terrorist attacks could much more easily utilize nuclear material.

China has no interest in funding terrorist attacks against the U.S. or anyone else. They want to be a Great Power, not a rogue state.

Aside from nukes, which would draw an obvious and unstoppable reprisal from the U.S., China does not have the military capability to meaningfully threaten the U.S. They don't have the aircraft, ships, subs, landing craft, etc. And again, I don't know why they would want that.

They do have the means to threaten their regional neighbors, though, and some of them are U.S. allies. That's the WWIII threat: that Chinese regional aggression sucks the U.S. into a military confrontation on China's turf.

Re: When Trump Phones Friends, the Chinese and the Russians Listen and Learn

#44
post #36

If you are wondering if other countries are intercepting calls by hacking the carriers, the article seems to mainly point the finger at malware. It said the protocol is to replace the phones with no backups every month or so. "Mr. Trump is supposed to swap out his two official phones every 30 days for new ones but rarely does, bristling at the inconvenience. White House staff members are supposed to set up the new ph…

They have those guys taping together all of Trump's ripped up papers, surely they can get someone to essentially do manual data entry from one phone to the other?

Re: When Trump Phones Friends, the Chinese and the Russians Listen and Learn

#45
This article mentions that restoring an iphone from backup also risks transferring any malware.

What would be the way to restore an iphone: would restore data from icloud also risk malware infection if the phone had it? (E.g. syncing calendars, imessages, health data, etc, all of which can use icloud sync)

Referring to regular iphones here, not the president's custom phone

Re: When Trump Phones Friends, the Chinese and the Russians Listen and Learn

#46

> Mr. Trump’s aides have repeatedly warned him that his cellphone calls are not secure, and they have told him that Russian spies are routinely eavesdropping on the calls, as well. But aides say the voluble president, who has been pressured into using his secure White House landline more often these days, has still refused to give up his iPhones. How is blatant disregard for communication security not an impeachable…

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/aug/19/hillary-cli... It's all a joke

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Re: When Trump Phones Friends, the Chinese and the Russians Listen and Learn

#48
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China isn't a military threat, but Russia has proved that military power isn't necessary to sow chaos and destabilize the US. You don't even need military-grade hackers.

Russia has "destabilized" the US? That is hyperbole at best, unless you know something I don't. What exactly are you referring to? They seem to have destabilized the US media , in the sense that they can't publish enough stories about Russia. But have they actually achieved anything in any real way?

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Re: When Trump Phones Friends, the Chinese and the Russians Listen and Learn

#49
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In surprised to hear someone say China is not a military threat to the United States. Can you expound on this? For example, I believe China could easily organize and fund far more terrorist attacks than, say, bin laden ever did. Furthermore, their terrorist attacks could much more easily utilize nuclear material.

China has no interest in funding terrorist attacks against the U.S. or anyone else. They want to be a Great Power, not a rogue state. Aside from nukes, which would draw an obvious and unstoppable reprisal from the U.S., China does not have the military capability to meaningfully threaten the U.S. They don't have the aircraft, ships, subs, landing craft, etc. And again, I don't know why they would want that. They do h…

Interesting. I feel I could say the same of the USA vs China - any outright attack against China would draw a massive response, and I hardly believe the USA is capable of occupying China in any meaningful way.

Re: When Trump Phones Friends, the Chinese and the Russians Listen and Learn

#50

> Mr. Trump’s aides have repeatedly warned him that his cellphone calls are not secure, and they have told him that Russian spies are routinely eavesdropping on the calls, as well. But aides say the voluble president, who has been pressured into using his secure White House landline more often these days, has still refused to give up his iPhones. How is blatant disregard for communication security not an impeachable…

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