“The most powerful publication in the world today,” says Joseph Bernstein, “is Donald Trump’s
personal Twitter account.” It can move financial markets, provoke foreign powers and set off media
firestorms – and, like all Twitter accounts, it’s “shockingly insecure”. Hacking a Twitter account
doesn’t require the “resources of a nation state”. In the past year, the accounts of Mark Zuckerberg,
Keith Richards and the foreign minister of Belgium were among those hacked: a number of highprofile
hacks were traced to a Saudi teenager. Indeed, Trump’s own account has been hacked before:
in 2013 a prankster tweeted Trump’s followers a rude rap lyric. That incident caused no great harm,
but imagine what someone could do today if they seized control of Trump’s account and posted
messages in his name. They could provoke an international incident, or earn a fortune by influencing
stock prices, or unleash the rage of Trump’s 23 million followers on an individual. If Trump stuck to
the official @POTUS account, which has extra security protocols, such as multiple password layers,
it would lessen the danger. But he’s still using his personal @realDonaldTrump account, reportedly
on an old, unsecured Android phone. It’s a “security disaster waiting to happen”.
