No Stupid Questions

This administration is using off the shelf iPhones.

Usually you get a secure phone (regular brand) thats enrolled in the government's MDM. Which I imagine has special images and phat protections.

News flash, your assumption that they're using secure phones is false.

They’re using Signal so nothing is recorded.

Basically there’s a government transparency mandate by We The People. It’s why info gets released to the press and eventually things like the JFK assassination are released years later. It’s why everything the president writes or says is recorded. Because, in theory, they work for We The People and have to answer to us. They can’t do that if no one knows what they’re up to.

Trump admin says, fuck that, fuck We The People, we will now use an end to end encrypted service that cannot be effectively subpoenaed. What we do is our secret, so no one knows what we are up to.

As a messaging service Signsl is as secure and private as the people using it. You want privacy you use WIRE or Signal. Your stuff isn’t recorded on a database like Facebook Messenger, for later subpoenas, it’s just poof, gone, as you delete it. You can even time delete it for everyone in chat after a few minutes, an hour, a week, etc.

As for the phones themselves, I don’t know. In general terms, out of the box, Apple is more secure than android but neither is private, unless the feds get a telemetry removal package or some such which would make sense. GrapheneOS on an Android device (strips all telemetry including that map app) is how we laymen do it.

It's not the phones it's the users. If you're stupid enough to invite a reporter into your warplans group chat then no amount of security is enough.

They have high side computers they referenced, those are specially vetted. These phones shouldn't have had sensitive info on them. If the operating system or an app had a screen recorder or key logger, you'd have a leak, even if the encryption is secure. Plus there's the physical vulnerability of people seeing it in public or losing the phone.

In theory, they're supposed to have custom-made secure phone with built-in cryptography, a famous example would be modern Police walkie-talkie which practically speaking are using a protocol closer from (legacy) mobile phone than from radio.

The problem is that it's 2025 and not 1995 anymore. When it was about A mobile device which can carry voice and short text message A custom device would be a bit more bulky and expensive. But today, when smartphone are mini-computer with tons of cool feature, and that people are used to have group-chat, touch screen, visual call. Sudently a custom-device feels like back in 2005. And here is the problem, most high level politicians aren't cryptography nerd or Military/Intelligence officer understanding how to be discrete, they're marketing and communication people who love these fancy UI, and need to show off.

Any currently supported phone, with an MDM enforcing secure settings, plus an app with a portal to their own servers; nothing stored on-device, no ability to exfiltrate data.

Good ol' Blackberry baby!

... Nah, but I miss my physical keyboard...