President Donald Trump has prided his administration as the defender of Americanism. Highly-visible examples include his controversial Muslim ban and border wall promises. He is a self-professed "smart person," who alone has the ability to protect U.S. interests against foreign attackers. However, President Trump's cybersecurity chops are distinctly lacking.
Who could forget the first 2016 presidential debate where Trump referred to "the cyber" as something very complicated and hacking to be something nearly impossible to track, claiming that the incursion of DNC emails wasn't the work of Russian cybercriminals but rather the work of a 400-pound person, maybe.
Sadly, this clunky debate performance isn't the only reason to doubt Trump's digital prowess. Recently, an Iraqi hacker defaced a secure website associated with Trump's campaign.
While the country waits to see how the president will improve our cyber defenses, it is probably best to invest in a cybersecurity policy that will safeguard your business against the most damaging effects of data breach and hacking.
Hackers Gonna Hack
On February 19th, a hacker under the anonym "Pro_Mast3r" targeted and defaced a server associated with Trump's presidential campaign which read:
Hacked By Pro_Mast3r ~
Attacker Gov
Nothing Is Impossible
Peace From Iraq
The attack itself was pretty innocuous and seemed to be an act of hacktivism rather than cybercrime. The mysterious hacker apparently used a snow animation script rather than malware or ransomware to vandalize the site. While the secure2.donaldjtrump.com server does not appear to be directly linked from the Trump-Pence homepage, it does have a legitimate certificate proving it's part of an actual Trump campaign server.
The server has since been taken offline.
Of course, this isn't the first time Trump's websites were hit. The Trump organization official site Trump.com was attacked in August 2015 by a group calling itself "Telecomix" who posted a message criticizing the Donald and extolling TV-comedian Jon Stewart as he bid farewell to The Daily Show.
The message, in part, read: "Your Moment of Zen, Mr Stewart. We are writing you today via Mr. Trump's website because, seeming, the only way to get anyone to pay attention any more is to grease a Presidential candidate's website. We agree it is a regrettable state of affairs, we blame big Quinoa mostly... but, we digress..."
In late 2016, Trump's luxury hotel company paid a $50,000 settlement after not one, but two major hacks leaked customer's personal and credit card information. The kicker is that hotel chain did not implement the cybersecurity plan they were given after the initial incursion in 2015; meaning that the organization could have prevented the second attack.
Even worse is that Team Trump sat on the leak for months before alerting its customers about the theft, leaving them vulnerable to identity theft. Not exactly the cybersecurity policy you'd expect from the man who plans to "make America safe again."
Not to mention further concerns about Trump's notoriously insecure cell phone, his inexplicably paused cyber defense executive order and his questionable (albeit unofficial) appointment of Rudy Giuliani to oversee the nation's cybersecurity.
This leave one to wonder, if Teflon Don can be hacked repeatedly, what chance does your small business have? While you should take the necessary steps to protect your company from cybercrime, it is also vital to invest in cybersecurity policy insurance which can protect you from extortion, business loss, data loss, class action lawsuits and more.
Visit CyberPolicy today to learn more.
