Americans advised to avoid computers and send written missives instead

[Chemyst]

American president-elect Donald J. Trump has come out in favour of handwritten documents to safeguard important material:

Mr. Trump, who does not use email, also advised people to avoid computers when dealing with delicate material. “It’s very important, if you have something really important, write it out and have it delivered by courier, the old-fashioned way, because I’ll tell you what, no computer is safe,” Mr. Trump said.

“I don’t care what they say, no computer is safe,” he added. “I have a boy who’s 10 years old; he can do anything with a computer. You want something to really go without detection, write it out and have it sent by courier.”

Perhaps it is time to stock up on bulletproof inks, sealing wax and courier bags?

[SIR]

+1 sound advice, apart from us not all being so well financially enabled as Mr Trump and physical post has inherent security issues too.

Even better is to only communicate face to face, unless it's with the Borgias in which case email is probably best...

[jar]

And as the Dons learned, if you have something really important, don't write it, don't say it don't even whisper it because nothing you write, nothing you say, nothing you whisper is safe from detection.

Except Twitter of course. You can tweet anything.

[oldstoat]

He's a bit behind the times. I recall a report in the paper 3-4 years ago saying that the kremlin was buying up electric typewriters and filing important documents on paper. If they needed to be sent from office to office, they used couriers and office boys. The wheel turns...

[matteob]

He has a point and it hold true especially in the UK with heavy snooping legislation. You can use encryted email and tor but the hand deliver and burn method does suit if you are paranoid. I am sure there is the possibility of mail and courier interception among spooks though. I like letters and written records as they are the most stable long term method of keeping information.

[adhoc]

Except Twitter of course. You can tweet anything.

Hah, that made me chuckle. Nice one.

I am sure there is the possibility of mail and courier interception among spooks though.

Oh yeah, definitely. This was still quite popular here just a few decades ago, when under "glorious" Yugoslavia personal correspondence was frequently read by the security agency because of potential "internal enemies". Potential internal enemies were mostly decided based on civilians' self-report; i.e. my neighbour has two cows and I have only one, so he must be a spy. My mother was frequently there, because her mother took her as shield as to not be suicided (you know, the three shots in the head type of suicides) in front of her child.

[Scrawler]

I have spent my whole working life on computer systems. I have designed and built banking systems as well as automation for other large institutions. I do not, and never will, do any online banking. We joyously created because we could, and the moment we made a prototype to show an idea the moneymen wanted to run with it. They often never knew they needed a particular report until they had a computer system to produce it, and with those reports were able to design more, and more complex, banking products. Security was always an afterthought, tacked on when some smarty pants found a way in to do damage. People are happy to use any technology, without understanding it, and without forward thinking about the probable implications of its widespread use.

[Empty_of_Clouds]

The motive behind Trumpy's suggestion is highly suspect, and I feel it has more to do with him not getting slammed by damning information rather than any generalised security issues.