Apart from his apparent love of Twitter, President-elect Donald Trump isn’t a huge fan of technology. Speaking last week about the Russian hacking incidents, the Republican blamed computers for complicating people’s lives. Now, he’s suggested a method of keeping sensitive government information safe: stop using computers and send messages via human couriers.
Speaking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Southern Florida, Trump made the comments during his annual New Year’s Eve party on Saturday. Admittedly, his belief that “no computer is safe” is well founded, but using couriers instead of electronic means to communicate isexcessiveand comes with its own security issues. The method would mean that humans - often the weakest link in the cyber security chain - would be even more at risk from nefarious parties.
Instead of upgrading government networks and security, Trump said he’d rather use couriers for those “really important” messages, though it’s hard to imagine that physically passing on notes would beany safer than the computerized equivalent.
Hours after his statements, Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, said the next president would continue to embrace twitter as a platform for making major policy announcements. "There's a new sheriff in town, and he's going to do things first and foremost for the American people … Absolutely you're going to see Twitter," Spicer said on ABC's This Week.
As a punishment for its alleged hacking activities, the Obama administration placednew sanctions on Russia last week, which included the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats. When asked what he thought about sanctioning Russia, Trump said: “I think we ought to get on with our lives.”