According to Bloomberg, the White House is considering putting a ban in place on the use of personal phones at work by staff. The Trump administration has been plagued by leaks, which is one of the reasons why they want to consider banning personal phones at work.
In February, we previously saw then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer coordinating unplanned “phone checks” to control the leaks that were happening in the White House. Staffers then started to use encrypted messaging apps. A ban in place would be used to cut off contact with the press, but there’s another downside: Bloomberg reports that White House staff aren’t able to send text messages on government-issued devices.
Bloomberg points out information from a source saying that the ban would be in place for cyber security reasons because personal devices are not as secure as White House-issued devices. We’ve already seen White House chief of staff John Kelly’s personal phone was compromised by hackers previously.
This plan would ban personal device use for all staff in the executive office of the president, though we still don’t have clear indication of when the administration will move ahead with the idea. White House has been dealing with a high level of leaks, though that is just one of many reasons why it’s trying to implement a ban to not have personal phone usage at the White House.
