Literally this entire year, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and the rest of the GOP have been harping on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s emails. When she was Secretary of State, she used a private email server for her email communications.
It looks like Donald Trump has his own email woes to contend with.
It turns out that many of the email servers used by his businesses and hotels run outdated server software known as Windows Server 2003. This software does not utilize security patches. In fact, Microsoft stopped patching the software in July of 2015.
This server software will just become more insecure as time goes on. Microsoft won’t update it or issue new security patches when new technical threats come out. People are writing different viruses for this software every day. They know is out of date and vulnerable.
We all have to update our computers to protect against these threats.
Security architect Kevin Beaumont uncovered the issues. He said:
“Not sure what to say re Trump’s email server. Other than during a hot topic of election campaign, maybe run an supported, patchable system.[sic]”
“Windows Server 2003, IIS 6 and Exchange 2003 went end of life years ago. There are no security fixes. They don’t have basics down.”
The official Microsoft website says:
“If you are still running Windows Server 2003 in your data center, you need to take steps now to plan and execute a migration strategy to protect your infrastructure.”
Beaumont also said this in an email to Motherboard:
“Running outdated software and operating systems for your publicly facing email infrastructure is problematic, especially when you’re a high-profile organisation. During an election where cybersecurity is such a big issue, I was a little amazed at what I saw.”
Quick update on Trump corp email servers – all internet accessible, single factor auth, no MDM, Win2003, no security patching. pic.twitter.com/nIMTa9UmdL
— Kevin Beaumont (@GossiTheDog) October 17, 2016
Beaumont also had this to say about Trump’s servers:
The OS, by the way, is the one Clinton's private email server run and she got in trouble for.
— Kevin Beaumont (@GossiTheDog) October 17, 2016
That’s right, Republicans. Trump is using the same software that Clinton used. However, it was safer to use when she was Secretary of State because Microsoft was still sending security updates for it.
Trump has left his servers completely vulnerable. They are unpatched, hackable, and make all information publicly available to anyone who knows how to use a browser’s developer tools.
The Trump Organization sent this response to the Motherboard story:
“The Trump Organization deploys best in class firewall and anti-vulnerability technology with constant 24/7 monitoring. Our infrastructure is vast and leverages multiple platforms which are consistently monitored and upgraded using current cyber security best practices.”
There is some form of grotesque beauty in @realDonaldTrump running Windows 2003 on his mail servers: https://t.co/YeGg8iLCcy pic.twitter.com/9qhM3PoEnC
— David Walmsley (@TheWalms) October 18, 2016
Microsoft won’t push any security updates to Windows 2003, which makes this statement an outright lie. These servers could be part of the cause of the recent hacking problem Trump has had. We’ll never know, really.
One thing is certain, though. The Trump organization needs to update their computer and server equipment immediately.
Here is a clip from the first debate with Donald Trump complaining about Hillary Clinton’s emails:
Featured image via YouTube Video.
