Trump Weights in on Russian Hacks

Donald Trump showed off his IT security expertise at a New Year’s Eve Party, suggesting to party goers that the best way to keep secrets from hackers is a huge airgap.

“No computer is safe,” he told journalists gathered at his Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida, a warning that many security experts would most definitely endorse.

Trump also offered his advice on managing data security risks. Forget switching to TLS or quantum key exchange: “If you have something really important, write it out and have it delivered by courier,” he said, per a report from Associated Press.

Trump’s suggestion — echoing his July 29 InfoSec advice for military commanders — would put massive airgaps around secret communications between government officials. This all to ensure the validity and security of the messages, which is in par with the recent Russian hacking of party officials. If this were ever applied to government communications, though, Capitol Hill would be a veritable staging ground for an army of trustworthy little hands to carry messages.

The security — or otherwise — of email servers was a hot topic during the presidential election campaign. With Trump making the most of opponent Hilary Clinton’s use of private server to host official government emails during her time as Secretary of State, and even encouraging Russian hackers to try to find her emails she had deleted.

Despite this encouragement, Trump continues to deny or dismiss allegations that Russia attempted to influence the American Presidential Campaign in the President Elect’s favor.

When U.S. President announced sanction against Russia last week over attempts to hack the Democratic National Committee, Trump told reporters: “I think we ought to get on with our lives.”

Trump has arranged to meet with U.S. intelligence officials to discuss the allegations next week, and said at the New Year’s Eve event, that he wants U.S. officials “to be sure, because it’s a pretty serious charge.”

Such allegations can be difficult to substantiate, he warns.

“I know a lot about hacking,” he said, “and hacking is a very hard thing to prove, so it could be somebody else.”