back to article Trump website server config snafu left interns' CVs exposed

Misconfiguration of Donald Trump's campaign website left the personal information of interns – and perhaps more – accessible to casual snooping. Staffers of the real estate mogul-turned-US presidential candidate “bungled the settings on their Amazon S3 server”, according to MacKeeper security researcher Chris Vickery, the …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    I have the solution!

    They should listen more to Trump: maybe they can build a wall around the server, a great wall made out of fire to keep all the pesky intruders out. We could call it... A firewall!

    1. Dwarf

      Re: I have the solution!

      Was going to post the exact same thing, so have an upvote

      The big question though - who's going to pay for it ??

      - Must be those damn Mexican hackers

      Wonder if any of the CV's say about cloud server experience ??

    2. FrogsAndChips Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: I have the solution!

      And get the Mexicans to pay for it!

  2. psyvenrix
    FAIL

    Nice URL

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/15/trump_site_bungled_conigs_expose_intern_cvs/

    >bungled_conigs

    >conigs

    Fine work El Reg

  3. Alistair
    Coat

    pyvenrix:

    This is along with several missing consonants in the article body. I'd say that the CIA has been renditioning non-vowels from ElReg at this rate.

    Or someone's TTS microphone needs a thorough brushing.

  4. Chika
    Trollface

    Down to experience

    When I saw that picture, my first response was this:-

    Drumpf: I knew I shouldn't have got that second hand rug from Bruce Forsyth!

  5. cyrus
    Facepalm

    "Staffers of the real estate mogul-turned-US presidential candidate “bungled the settings on their Amazon S3 server”, which according to MacKeeper security researcher Chris Vickery, the security researcher who discovered the recently-resolved flaw."

    Still looking for the rest of this sentence. And is calling the guy from MacKeeper a "Security Researcher" some sort of joke?

  6. wolfetone Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Careful El Reg

    He wanted to know why he couldn't use nukes. Don't give him an excuse to use them.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Careful El Reg

      Okay, so answer it; why can't he use nukes as commander in chief? I wasn't aware it had been removed as an option. Is that what YOU think? Please explain your reasoning.

      Yes, I'm aware that you are attempting to insinuate that Trump is a hair-trigger kind of guy. With zero credible evidence I might add.

      1. wolfetone Silver badge

        Re: Careful El Reg

        Nuclear devices are just there for show, they're not actually meant to be used. I know it's hard for American's to accept that, especially as they're the only country to use one in anger - and won't apologise but hey ho that's a different discussion.

        Mutually Assured Distruction is the very reason why nuclear weapons work and aren't used. IF America were to use their nukes tomorrow against Russia they'd be wiped out. Why? Russia have more nukes. But when all the nukes are used, what are you left with then? A country, nay, world, that is inhabitable.

        But I'm not even a politician, nor am I in a position to be one, and even I know that. And, really if you ask a question once and are given an answer, the only reason you should ask the same question twice more afterwards is if you either don't understand the answer or don't understand the answer. Trump asked that quesiton 3 times.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Careful El Reg

          "Nuclear devices are just there for show, they're not actually meant to be used."

          I suggest you look up something called 'game theory.'

      2. Pascal Monett Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: "attempting to insinuate that Trump is a hair-trigger kind of guy. With zero credible evidence"

        What, you haven't seen his hair ?

    2. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

      Re: Careful El Reg

      http://www.snopes.com/2016/08/03/joe-scarborough-donald-trump-asked-three-times-why-us-cant-use-nukes/

      is suspicious of the story about Donald Trump's interest in using nuclear bombs to solve America's foreign policy problems. It looks like a rumour repeated on national television. I don't always trust Snopes on politics, so by all means show me where you go for checking on things.

      I think a most favourable interpretation, if the story is true as told, is that Mr. Trump accepted that nukes don't solve all the problems, but wanted to have it explained to him in detail why some particular cases weren't nukable at this time, and what would have to change so that they are.

  7. Alister

    Trump said...

    "We have to see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what's happening. We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas, closing that internet up in some ways."

    Yep, there you go Donald.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Mr

    Good thing it wasn't a private email server in his house where he was keeping classified information.

    1. Hollerithevo

      Re: Mr

      You mean that server that Colin Powell approved for her use (and covered his ass about later), a server set up in the same way that her colleagues in other departments ad predecessors had set up, and which was done two years before the rules were changed about not allowing such servers, and over which the FBI found nothing to follow up?

      I am no fan of Mrs Clinton, but geez, get some facts into the conversation.

      1. Mark 85

        Re: Mr

        Oh to hell with it. Let's get rid of all the politicians and start over, shall we? Both sides are playing the same games with each other... and we, the people, are caught in the middle with all the rhetoric they generate. I keep hoping I'll hear something substantial from any of the candidates instead of soundbites, tweets, and assorted name-calling.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Mr

          Trump is no politician. No elected offices in his past whatsoever. Hillary sure is tho. Please get your facts straight next time before trying the equivalence thing, okay?

          Mrs. Clinton was caught red handed doing unethical and illegal stuff while employed by the People. Trump did not do this, nor was Powell all that bad, especially compared to her arguably treasonous exposure of state secrets and sanitizing of her own (well, a laughably failed attempt to do so, anyway).

          1. Mark 85

            Re: Mr

            Trump is no politician.

            Well, he's running for office now... so.. But that's my opinion. I'd prefer a none of the above on the ballot this time around.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Mr

            >unethical and illegal stuff while employed by the People. Trump did not do this

            But he's sure done unethical and/or illegal stuff in business.. Trump University anyone? Trying to bar non-white people from renting apartments in his buildings?

            There's very long list of his legal and ethical failures. Add that to his pathalogical failure to accept reality (or even any view other than his own) and you really, really have someone utterly unsuitable to be in charge of anything other than a bad hairpiece..

          3. Antron Argaiv Silver badge
            Thumb Up

            Re: Mr

            Mrs. Clinton was caught red handed doing unethical and illegal stuff while employed by the People.

            Well, the FBI has declined to ask for an indictment, so whatever she did, can't have been TOO illegal.

            Unethical? Running your own email server? She did hand over all the emails when asked. Sounds about as ethical as it needs to be.

            Unlike the Bush administration, which wiped their servers on the way out of office.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Mr

              So, you don't actually know what she is accused of? Figures.

    2. Antron Argaiv Silver badge
      Happy

      Email servers

      Perhaps Hillary shouldn't have run her own email server.

      But it wasn't hacked.

      Unlike the State Department servers:

      http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/10/politics/state-department-hack-worst-ever/

  9. Florida1920
    Holmes

    Fixed?

    From Mackeeper: "I have zero confidence that the campaign will be honest about that in whatever response they put out publicly (that’s if they do actually acknowledge the situation)."

    Unless they can find a way to gain political spin by blaming it on someone outside the campaign, we'll never hear about it.

  10. Gis Bun

    Oh Trump will blame anyone but someone on his campaign team. Maybe Clinton, maybe the researcher [saying he is a Democrat even if he isn't], or IT in general.

    He won't blame his friends in Russia.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Big difference

    "Trump has made great play over rival Hillary Clinton’s use of an insecure personal email server"

    There is a BIG difference between Hillary ordering her people to set up an insecure, exposed to the internet server to house Top Secret and above materials (to avoid the "hassle" of dealing with state department device regulations) and a technician not applying a recently released patch on a webserver.

    Having said that, it's totally uncool that this happened but Trump didn't tell his IT guy "Ok, go expose our donor base". Hillary definitely said "go set up something illegal, and then shred it if we're caught".

    Huge difference. I hope you Brits understand the power grab going on over here right now. If Hillary wins, you'll never get those "refugees" out of your country. At least if we get Trump in office you guys can tell your leaders "hey, America's not doing this, why the hell are we?"

    1. tommydokc

      Re: Big difference

      you're internationally ignorant now.

      1. steve 124

        Re: Big difference

        I have a masters degree in networking and am the Director of IT for the 4th largest medical facility in my state. I graduated with a 4.2GPA from high school and was valedictorian of my college class. I've followed American politics, probably as long as you've been alive, and... I'm voting Trump.

        You have a strange idea of "ignorance". However, if you are under 30, you have an excuse. The education system in America (and probably in Britain too) has been turning out liberal retards since the late 80s now, while at the same time all the major media outlets have been gobbled up by about four liberal socialists, who now control everything Americans see labelled as "news". If you aren't old enough to remember, news used to be an information outlet that you could use to make up your mind about things, now it's just a propaganda machine, the likes of which we haven't seen since 1930s Germany.

        If you are smart enough to be in IT (obviously you are, or you wouldn't be reading El Reg) then you should do yourself a big favor and actually study the candidates and see what the truth is.

        It's not racist to enforce the law (immigration laws DO exist). It's not evil to want people to work for a living (regardless of what European governments say). It's not your right to take stuff I've earned and give it to someone else, it's my right to be charitable, if I choose.

        So keep spewing anti-Trump rhetoric, and keep believing the poll numbers CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, NPR and all the other Ted Turner and Rupert Murdock controlled media tells you. In the end, guess what? Educated people ARE going to vote for the right man for the job (and you know what? That's not sexist either).

        Hey, by the way, how's that refugee situation working out for you there England? Sweden? Germany?

        (Btw, sorry for the run-ons sentences. I'm enraged and also writing some automation scripts in C++ while I write this).

        1. Matt Bryant Silver badge
          Joke

          Re: steve 124 Re: Big difference

          "....how's that refugee situation working out...." Refugee "situation"? Officially nothing to see, just hugs and kisses all round, no attempts of lawfare entrapments, and definitely no discord between members of The Great Love-In known as the EU. Move along now, move along!

        2. tiggity Silver badge

          Re: Big difference

          You must be amazingly right wing if you see Murdoch controlled media as liberal / socialist, old Rupert is quite right wing and keen that his media companies generally reflect that viewpoint.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Big difference

            Reality has a known Liberal bias!

        3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: Big difference

          "Hey, by the way, how's that refugee situation working out for you there England? Sweden? Germany?"

          Oh my. All the worst stereotypes of a US redneck in one single post.

          "Liberal" isn't a swear word in the rest of the world.

          The assumption that the whole of Yoorope is either "socialist" or communist just because most EU countries try to keep at least some regulation on the rampant capitalist bourgeoisie who would sell their own granny for a quick buck.

          The "refugee" problem that was largely caused by over the top US foreign policy actions taken with no thought or responsibility for the consequences.

          Considering that Trump also seems to fit those stereotypes, it's no wonder he's your hero and he wants to slam the door shut and pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist.

    2. MrDamage Silver badge

      Re: Big difference

      And if Trump wins, the rest of the western world will be be swamped by intellectual refugees fleeing from what was once a first-world nation.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Big difference

        > "And if Trump wins, the rest of the western world will be be swamped by intellectual refugees fleeing from what was once a first-world nation."

        Oh if ONLY they would go! But alas, they never do, instead remaining to pollute the political waters with their finely chiseled thoughts on, well, everything.

        But hey, maybe a few will go. One can always hope.

        BTW, the US is no longer first world and is actually close to being a banana republic at this time, mostly due to the Obama regime's wholesale usurpation of powers not meant for the president. What's nice is that the 'intellectuals' won't like Trump doing the same thing and will oppose him bitterly. Which is ironic because they enabled Obama's power-grabbing attitude themselves.

    3. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: AC Re: Big difference

      "......If Hillary wins, you'll never get those "refugees" out of your country. At least if we get Trump in office you guys can tell your leaders "hey, America's not doing this, why the hell are we?"" Waaaaaaay ahead of you, chap. Haven't you heard, we're already building our own wall, though it is not yooooooge nor likely to be very beautiful.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Trump

    Lock him up!

  13. Crazy Operations Guy

    Why is sensitive information like this on a public facing server anyway?

    Candidate's public websites are prime targets for black hats and the like, and given how high-profile this election is, anything connected to the internet should be considered compromised. Public-facing web servers should never contain anything that isn't publicly released. They should also be regularly changing passwords (once a day at-least, given the risk level).

    Someone as hateful as Donnie "spray-tanned-used-condom-dropped-on-the-floor-of-a-barber-shop" Drumpf should be using as secure of a server as possible, lest one of the people that he has angered vandalize the website.

  14. JJKing

    If Drumpf is elected it will make America a bigger laughing stock than it presently is. When Dubya was was allowed to steal that election I was dumbfounded. Then when he was voted in a second time I finally realised how low the IQ was of the voters in that part of the world. Electing Drumpf is going to have a detrimental flow on effect to the rest of the world. The US was responsible for the Great Depression and that reverberated around the globe. Drumpf's election shall be far worse and unless there are some very strong types in the White House I fear that mental midget who proclaims to have the "best words" will use nuclear weapons against some country that mentions the size of his tiny digits.

    Hitler (Godwin's Law invoked) and Drump are both little tin gods who use(d) the same speech pattern to suck in the masses that listen(ed) to them. I genuinely fear for us if Drumpf is elected to be US President and you people will get what you deserve and the rest of the world will suffer because of your small minded short sightedness.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Dude, writing "Drumpf" or any similar name-slur self-identifies you as a lightweight.

      If you ever stopped, people might mistake you for a reasoned commentator, but I guess there's no danger of that!

      1. Crazy Operations Guy

        "Drumpf" is his real last name (Or at least the original name of his grandfather upon immigrating to the US). The intention behind using it is to separate the man from the "Trump" name since a lot of people believe he is a good business man because that name is on the side of a bunch of giant concrete phalli, and thus a good president (Of course that ignores the fact that being a god business man would make for a terrible president, but people are idiots...).

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          "Drumpf" is his real last name (Or at least the original name of his grandfather upon immigrating to the US).

          So Drumpf is NOT his real name at all. Got it. Makes one wonder why people keep making that mistake...

          And what about Truman? He was a businessman and he did okay when it came to ending the war, right? That was his main job at that time and he did what had to be done. He nuked Japan twice in quick succession to try and stop the endless dying, and it worked like a charm. Nearly the last Democrat to do anything right in the white house, but still.

          1. GrumpenKraut

            > He nuked Japan twice in quick succession to try and stop the endless dying, and it worked like a charm.

            ...for one strange definition of "charm".

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              You would prefer ten million dead Japanese civilians instead? And a million US soldiers? Because that was the casualty estimate for the invasion of the Japanese home islands, due to their 'fight to the death' attitude.

              Besides, 20-30 Japanese cities had already been burned to the ground by that time, so the big bombs were really just more of the same. Except that, being new and far more efficient at destruction, they made it possible for the Emperor to surrender on behalf of the country and prevent that huge death toll.

              The Japanese nation only exists today because of their surrender, and Harry Truman's decision which made it happen.

              1. GrumpenKraut
                Pint

                I do see your point and even agree, it was just the funny word choice.

                Beer o'clock now =---------------------->

              2. Antron Argaiv Silver badge
                Mushroom

                My dad was a Marine captain, in the Pacific, ordered to invade Japan. He had PTSD nightmares about his experiences fighting the Japanese on those Pacific islands for the rest of his life.

                I likely wouldn't be here if they had not dropped The Bombs.

                Sorry about the loss of civilian life, but the Japanese brought that on themselves. They were not the most civilized of conquerors during the war, so I suspect the Australian, Maylasian and other civilians they encountered would agree with Truman's decision.

                I doubt very much if Mr Trump has the guts or the intelligence to make a decision like that. I'm positive he doesn't have the moral character.

  15. Mystic Megabyte
    FAIL

    @Big John and Steve124

    You are both clever guys but you seem to have been fooled by the bullshit that Trumps talks. The man is an obnoxious arsehole, I would not buy a second-hand car from him.

    For an insight to right-pondian views please look at the 9th. Sept. (4 of 68) cartoon at the following link. The cowering critter is Trump's toupee :)

    http://www.independent.co.uk/#gallery

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: @Big John and Steve124

      Don't assume we like Trump or trust him very much. It's just that the alternative is so repugnant that he looks good by comparison. Or will you now try to defend the criminal Clinton? If she ever sees the inside of the white house a lot of people can look forward to serious persecution for their many slights against Queen Hillary. She has a history of doing that. Eventually we'll all be on the list.

      So yeah, Trump in 2016, rah rah rah.

    2. steve 124

      Re: @Big John and Steve124

      I've got news for you Mystic, we need an asshle at this point. This entire generation is made up of and being led by little wimpy pansies. If WW2 had happened in this generation, we'd all be speaking German right now (well the ones that they left alive). This generation stands for nothing. They allow everything. The only time they get "involved" is when there's something free being offered or threatened to be taken away. They tout how important "free speech" is, unless you're speaking against their agenda. Many of the best presidents we've had were "asshles" but sometimes it takes someone who will stand against the wave of opposition from "established" (aka entrenched) life-long DCers. Washington DC is like Hollywood and our politicians are having the same trouble as our movie stars. They get to a point where no one wants to tell them they are batshit crazy or coming up with bad ideas, so they start believing their own press. The bad thing is, DCers have the power to make their fantasies a reality, as long as no one stands against them.

      So if Trump offends you, too bad, you need to be offended. Hillary's willingness to bend to any group that she thinks might vote for her offends me. The next President needs to be first and foremost doing things that benefit American and Americans, just like your leaders in Blimey should be trying to benefit Britains. Anything less is treasonous.

      I'll leave you with this, you can interpret it as you want. I guess it all depends on what the definition of "evil" is...

      "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." ~ Edmund Burke

    3. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      FAIL

      Re: Mystic Megabyte Re: @Big John and Steve124

      "......For an insight to right-pondian views....." No, that would be an insight into the "thoughts" of a small subset of right-pondians, thanks. The Independent in no way represents the views of the whole population. Indeed, going by their subscription figures, they could only represent a tiny minority.

  16. Mystic Megabyte

    Divide and conquer

    We just had the same crap in the UK. The ones that wanted to leave the EU spread FUD, mostly about immigration. From speaking to people in the pub ISTM that just about all the "Leave" voters are racists.

    Putin must be happy knowing that Europe is weakened.

    Now your Mr. Trump is doing the same thing, spreading FUD and relying on peoples paranoia. I don't know much about H. Clinton but she does have political experience.

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