Trump was finally shamed by the internet into doing something right
This afternoon, President Donald Trump's @POTUS account was blowing up Twitter feeds—but for once, it wasn't because of his tweets.
Instead, the @POTUS account's security was the trending topic, after screenshots posted on Twitter appeared to reveal the fact that it was linked to a basic Gmail account. And also, possibly, lacked basic privacy protections. That prompted a slew of outside attempts to access the account, and what appears to be action from the Trump team to finally fix the issue.
Earlier this week, WauchulaGhost, a hacker with a history of hijacking ISIS-linked Twitter accounts, reached out to CNN to warn of potential security vulnerabilities of notable Trump-tied handles, including those of the President, First Lady and VP.
The accounts purportedly lacked a basic security feature, two-step verification, which requires users to manually enter a phone number or email associated with the account, as a second verification step to recover its login information. Without that preference in place, anyone trying to access the account is provided with the email address associated with the handle (in partially redacted form).
While the exact details of the email accounts were redacted, they appeared to be easy to guess—@VP's account looked like its linked email was "[email protected]." Having the email address in hand, a determined hacker could use a variety of means to potentially gain access to the email—and thus, the Twitter handle—as WauchulaGhost has done in the past with other accounts.
CNN reported that emails to Trump's head of social media, Dan Scavino, asking about the potential vulnerability went unanswered—but that wasn't the end of the story.
Today, Alex Zalben tested that vulnerability and attempted to log in to the @POTUS account. He posted a screenshot of the result on Twitter:
Multiple Twitter users confirmed the same result when they attempted to access the account (our tests at Mashable resulted in the same message).
Along with the basic concerns that come with the potential to parse out the email linked to a Twitter account the President uses to communicate with the public (one which has effects on global financial markets), members of the Twitter community were alarmed the address was what appeared to be a personal Gmail account. After a campaign fixated on the potential security concerns that come with government officials using private email (and reports of Trump staffers still using insecure servers), needless to say, the revelation struck a nerve.
But as the conversation ramped up on Twitter, it appears Team Trump took action. New addresses appeared to be linked to the handle, with what looks to be White House-affiliated private email clients.
Then, screenshots posted to Twitter showed the Gmail account was removed entirely.
After our recent attempts to access the network, it appeared that the handle had crashed.
We can't confirm whether or not the additional security step has been added to the account, but for now, at least the emails appear to have changed. There are other cyber security concerns surrounding the nascent Trump administration (like the potentially unsecured Android phone the President might be using when he tweets). For now, though, the collective pressure of the Twittersphere has brought one of those issues to rest.
Brett Williams is a Tech Reporter at Mashable. He writes about tech news, trends and other tangentially related topics with a particular interest in wearables and exercise tech. Prior to Mashable, he wrote for Inked Magazine and Thrillist. Brett's work has also appeared on Fusion and AskMen, to name a few. You can follow Brett on Twitter @bdwilliams910.
