Donald Trump’s presidency ended today, claims altered US State Department website

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Graham Cluley
Graham Cluley
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Donald Trump's presidency ended today, claims altered US State Department website

The biographies of outgoing US President Donald Trump and his Vice President Mike Pence were mysteriously changed on the official US State Department website at some point on Monday.

Visitors to www.state.gov were unable to view facts about the country’s top politicians, as somebody appeared to have mysteriously wiped them – only to be replace them with a solitary line detailing the end of their term.

Trump biog 700

Donald Trump’s time as president is currently scheduled to terminate on January 20th, but things are moving pretty quickly in Washington at the moment – so who knows…

Pence biog

Depending on what happens to Trump, Mike Pence may require a biog update as well…

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According to a Buzzfeed News report, a disgruntled employee at the US State Department is to blame for the unauthorised changes to the website.

I say an employee. It’s quite possible that they’re an ex-employee by now.

At the time of writing, anyone attempting to view Trump and Pence‘s biography pages are greeted with an error message.

Error

“We’re sorry, this site is currently experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again in a few moments.”

Presumably they’re trying to ensure that only trusted, authorised parties are able to edit the pages – or they’re trying to find the backup where the previous biographies were stored.

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Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

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