Trump’s First 100 Days: Trump aides contacted Russia & Trump’s poor cybersecurity

By the numbers:
Trump campaign aides linked to Russia

Yesterday, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigned amid concerns about his contacts with a Russian official. Now the New York Times is reporting that other Trump campaign aides have had contacts with the Russian government. This story is developing. As of 10:37 p.m., CNN reported that both Presidents Obama and Trump had been briefed about "constant" communication between the Russians and Trump operatives. CNN has since said it has the names of said operatives, but is seeking comment before releasing them. https://twitter.com/ericgeller/status/831708868715671552

Trump’s poor cybersecurity practices are becoming a problem

Cybersecurity is something that has been a matter of public interest for a while now ranging from concerns about election hacking, and, of course, Hillary Clinton’s email server. Now, Trump’s poor cybersecurity practices are starting to catch critics’ attention. The most recent event happened at the Mar-a-lago resort when news broke of a North Korean missile launch. Trump, who was meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the time, huddled with his aides to read an intelligence report while his aides used their phones’ flashlight as a reading light. Lighting up an intelligence report with a phone’s flashlight seems innocent enough, but when a hacker could easily access a phone’s camera, Trump’s aides were possibly creating a live show of top-secret intelligence. This Mar-a-lago incident happened while Trump was still using an unsecured Android phone.

Catherine Hofacker

Cat Hofacker is the 2017-2018 Director of Staff Development at The New Political, previously the Editor-in-Chief. A fourth-year journalism major at Ohio University, she is a 2017 recipient of a White House Correspondents Association scholarship. Follow her on Twitter at @CatHofacker for AP Style musings and bad puns. Send her an email at chofacker@thenewpolitical.com.

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