Democrats call for probe into White House’s cybersecurity practices

Democratic members of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology are calling for a probe into the White House’s cybersecurity practices, according to a letter.

Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., and Don Beyer, D-Va., signed and sent a letter to the committee’s Republican leadership requesting a hearing on the matter.

“The current administration, in its short time in office, has shown a shocking disregard for cybersecurity practices,” reads the letter to to Lamar Smith, R-Texas., Darin LaHood, R-Ill., and Barbara Comstock, R-Va. “Given your previous investigations of cybersecurity practices at multiple federal agencies, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Federal Reserve Board, and with respect to former Secretary Clinton’s private email server, we trust you will be equally concerned with any and all careless cybersecurity practices of the Trump Administration.”

Johnson, Lipinski and Beyer take issue with President Donald Trump’s reported use of an insecure, outdated Android smartphone and also questioned the security measures which were previously in place to protect the administration’s various Twitter accounts, including the @POTUS and @realDonaldTrump handle.

Government Twitter accounts are often used to announce official news and policies. Tweets from Trump’s personal account have in the past affected public stock prices and defined the news cycle.

Active email accounts belonging to top Trump aides, including spokesman Sean Spicer and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, were recently linked back to an old, reportedly compromised Republican National Committee email system.

FBI Director James Comey previously said that Russian intelligence services had hacked into defunct RNC email servers. It remains unclear whether any Trump aide uses their old RNC email account.