Are Trump’s Twitter account and phone secure?

President Trump continues to be an active Twitter user. This is troubling to many people from a security standpoint because according to some reports, he is still using his Samsung Galaxy S3, which is so out of date that it doesn't even receive security updates.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 uses the Android 4.4 system.  The most up to date version of the Android operating system is 7.1.1.  The hacking group Anonymous has posted online instructions as to how to hack a Galaxy S3.

The concerns about the security of the President’s smartphone and Twitter account are many.

Consider what happened recently to the video Twitter account of the New York Times. Someone hacked into the account and posted a fake tweet reading, "BREAKING: leaked statement from Vladimir Putin says:  Russia will attack the United States with Missiles."  In similiar fashion, many famous people in recent years including Mark Zuckerberg have had their Twitter accounts hijacked and phony tweets sent out in their name.  Even the NFL's Twitter account was hacked in June, when it falsely announced the death of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Until recently, a particular website that tracked major data breaches in which usernames, passwords and email addresses were stolen made that information available to anyone who paid a mere 76 cents.

With millions of people having this information stolen through major hacks of companies such as Myspace, LinkedIn and Yahoo, it was a simple matter to find this information about someone whose Twitter account a hacker would be targeting, particularly if that person, as so many people do, used the same password for multiple accounts.

Armed with the victim’s email account and a possible password it would be simple to hack their Twitter account.  Although this particular website has been closed, this information is able to be found by a diligent hacker.

In addition, if President Trump is still indeed using his Samsung Galaxy S3, the phone would pose a risk of being hacked in a manner that could steal information, listen in on conversations and even disclose the president's location, among other dangers.  When President Obama took office, he was compelled to switch from using his preferred Blackberry to a more secure phone

Neither the President nor any spokesman of his has confirmed what phone he uses.  While the President has understandably not made public details of his smartphone use or Twitter account, hopefully, the President’s security team has taken the necessary steps to protect the smartphone and his Twitter account from being hacked.

However smartphone security should be a priority for not just the President, but all of us because so much of what we do today is done on our smartphones.

Here are some important tips for smartphone security:

1.  Have a strong password to lock your phone.  This can protect your smartphone and the data therein if your phone is stolen or lost.

2.  Only download apps from legitimate sources such as Google Play or the App Store in order to help avoid malware infected apps.  Although no source of apps is totally secure from malware infected apps, Google Play and the App Store do a good job of vetting the Apps that they list. Also, make sure you understand what permissions you have granted when you install particular apps.  Too often, people ignore the permissions they give and may unwittingly give permission for the app to make costly phone calls, access your contact list or know your location when these permissions may not even be necessary.

3.  Back up all of the data on your phone and don't store data on your phone that doesn't need to be there.  Cybercriminals are targeting mobile devices more and more because they are often less secure than our computers.

4.  Install security software.  Too many people have security software on their computers, but not their portable devices.  Also, make sure you promptly update your security software whenever updates become available.

5.  Update your smartphone's operating system and all of the apps you use with the latest security updates.  Cybercriminals using malware to often take advantage of people who haven't done this.

6.  Turn off WiFi and Bluetooth when they are not in use.  This is good from a security standpoint  and also helps maintain battery power.

7.  Encrypt the data on your smartphone so that if your phone is hacked or stolen, the information on your phone will not be vulnerable.

8.  Use dual-factor authentication.    In the dual-factor authentication protocol used by Twitter, whenever you attempt to use your account, a six digit code is sent as a text message to your smartphone which is required in order to access your account.  This prevents someone from being able to hack into your Twitter account merely by knowing your user name and password.

9.  Use a remote access feature on your smartphone so that if it is lost or stolen you can lock it and delete data.

While it may seem that these security steps are excessive, they're really not.    They are easy to implement and will provide you with peace of mind.

Steve Weisman, an expert in preventing cyberscams and identity theft, is a lawyer and professor at Bentley University. He writes the blog scamicide.com, where he provides daily update information about the latest scams. His new book is Identity Theft Alert.