The European Commission is issuing disposable ‘burner’ phones to its staff sent to work in the U.S. This, and equivalent procedures with laptop computers, indicate that going forward, Washington is to be treated as a hostile environment.
The same counter-espionage measures are already in place for European Union diplomats working in China, prompting an official to brief that the “transatlantic alliance is over.” In contrast, a more restrained colleague told The Register:
We have recently updated several country-specific travelling recommendation factsheets for officials. They reflect the latest changes in the way the Commission communicates and the general increase of threats globally regarding cybersecurity.
Whereas the cybersecurity industry is stressing the importance of quantum computing, Brussels’ fears of conflict with an America-First Trump administration is fuelling this more basic approach. Burner phones are designed to be disposable and were first popularised by U.S. television series The Wire (2002-2008). Typically, their non-criminal use by politicians coincides with a lot of surreptitious and adolescent sneaking around.
The story, which broke overnight in the Financial Times (paywalled), was first denied by the Commission but has since been confirmed. Such growing tension is consistent with recent EU-U.S. conflicts over trade and free speech.
