Military leaders aghast as Zuck crashes classified Oval Office meeting

Re:Military leaders aghast as Zuck crashes classified Oval O... by mcswell on Friday July 04, 2025 @12:46PM (#44466014)

We knew that Hegseth didn't understand (or didn't believe in) security. It's not surprising that Trump, who had highly classified documents laying around in Mar a Lago, doesn't either.

Years ago, I was in a classified meeting in a SCIF when someone's cell phone went off. The person was immediately escorted out of the room--probably their clearance was revoked, and they were told not to come back. Having a cell phone in a SCIF is bad enough, having it go off inside the SCIF is even worse--and answering it during a classified meeting (or just answering it inside a SCIF) is cause for trouble big.

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Re:Military leaders aghast as Zuck crashes classified Oval O... by sitzkrieg on Friday July 04, 2025 @02:41PM (#44466889)

i have seen someone lose their clearance and sap after wearing a fitbit into the doorway

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Re:Military leaders aghast as Zuck crashes classified Oval O... by xlii on Friday July 04, 2025 @12:56PM (#44466092)

In case anyone else didn’t know: SCIF stands for "sensitive compartmented information facility" (I assume ;))

The thing with security is that usually people treat it like a joke or very very seriously. I think that was the latter.

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Re:Military leaders aghast as Zuck crashes classified Oval O... by FL410 on Friday July 04, 2025 @12:57PM (#44466095)

Why would a cell phone even work in a SCIF?

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Re:Military leaders aghast as Zuck crashes classified Oval O... by sitzkrieg on Friday July 04, 2025 @02:42PM (#44466892)

its not a faraday cage. just built to spec

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Re:Military leaders aghast as Zuck crashes classified Oval O... by HappySweeney on Friday July 04, 2025 @12:57PM (#44466099)

I'm a bit surprised the entire thing isn't in a faraday cage.

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Re:Military leaders aghast as Zuck crashes classified Oval O... by russdill on Friday July 04, 2025 @01:32PM (#44466385)

If the door is open, signals can get in. Additionally, "gone off" could mean an alarm

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Re:Military leaders aghast as Zuck crashes classified Oval O... by ModernMech on Friday July 04, 2025 @12:55PM (#44466079)

Huh... I had always imagined SCIFs were like faraday cages, so a cell phone wouldn't be able to send or receive any signals.

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Re:Military leaders aghast as Zuck crashes classified Oval O... by derektank on Friday July 04, 2025 @01:09PM (#44466192)

That would be prohibitively expensive in most cases.

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Re:Military leaders aghast as Zuck crashes classified Oval O... by sam_lowry_ on Friday July 04, 2025 @07:36PM (#44468884)

O'rly?

These are not only Faraday cages, but they also actively transmit noise.

It's open information since the 70-ies.

A mobile phone will not work inside.

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Re:Military leaders aghast as Zuck crashes classified Oval O... by mcswell on Tuesday July 08, 2025 @10:47PM (#44505937)

(OP here) I kid you not, the person whose phone went off inside the SCIF was holding his phone next to a window, complaining about the poor signal. He was some kind of scientist or engineer who had been given a clearance as an "expert" adviser to listen to and grade presentations by people like me. I'm sure he didn't usually work in a SCIF--this might have been his first (and probably last) time inside one.

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