One of the most basic tenets of cybersecurity is that you must “consider your threat model” when trying to keep your data and your communications safe, and then take appropriate steps to protect yourself.
This means you need to consider who you are, what you are talking about, and who may want to know that information (potential adversaries) for any given account, conversation, etc. The precautions you want to take to protect yourself if you are a random person messaging your partner about what you want to eat for dinner may be different than those you’d want to take, if, hypothetically, you are the Secretary of Defense of the United States or a National Security Advisor talking to top administration officials about your plans for bombing an apartment building in Yemen.
He didn’t “access” anything, it was sent directly to him.
Remember when the Governor of Missouri tried to have a guy arrested for notifying the state of Missouri that they had a breach in one of the state websites, making peoples PII publicly visible?
That’s the kind of idiots you’re dealing with here. “We added you to a group chat by mistake and it’s all YOUR fault.”
But that obviously wouldn’t stop them from having him disappeared. Heck I don’t even think that’s off the table now
Probably not, especially now that he’s leaking the previously undisclosed classified information (that the people involved insisted was not classified). But them’s the brakes when you’re a journalist.
I think even the Trump administration is just about bright enough to realize that disappearing a top journalist wouldn’t go well for them. Especially if he never turned up again.
I really don’t think they’d care. Until someone shows them they’re not untouchable, why wouldn’t they?