Press

Nicholas Weaver, a researcher at the California-based International Computer Science Institute, said Trump's phone swap "massively reduces, but does not completely eliminate, the security risks." But while he agreed foreign governments are likely to try to hack the phone, Weaver said US intelligence services may have modified it to be "a nice honeypot to trap attempted attacks."

“It’s weird, because it doesn’t match a conventional threat model,” said Nicholas Weaver, a senior researcher at the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, in an interview with “The Guardian.” “If you assume the attacker is interested in turning a laptop into a bomb, it would work just as well in the cargo hold.”

"Yes, bombs in laptops are a threat, but this assumes the laptop has to be manually detonated or placed, while a timer can work just as well in the cargo hold," Nicholas Weaver, a researcher at the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California-Berkeley wrote in an email. "At the same time, by only targeting a few source airports but not transit, this assumes that said suicidal terrorist is willing to blow up a plane but is unwilling to transfer through Frankfurt."

Comey’s idea means that all countries will essentially agree to weaken the security in their vendors’ tech products, Weaver said. However, other countries will balk, fearing that the U.S. might exploit the cooperation for spying purposes.