Rudy Giuliani Is To Head Donald Trump’s Cybersecurity Taskforce

Rudy Giuliani is to form and lead a new cyber security team made up of private sector security experts for President-elect Donald Trump.

The former New York City Mayor confirmed the appointment on Thursday morning on “Fox and Friends.”

“The idea here is to bring together corporate leaders and their technological people,” Giuliani said in the interview “The president will meet with them on an ongoing basis, as well as anybody else in the administration.”

Privatised Cyber Defence?

Giuliani is a close ally of Donald Trump and publicly backed the Presidential candidate after his inappropriate comments about women, at a time when few others did.

Trump was reportedly considering rewarding Giuliani with one of the top posts within his administration, including the positions of attorney general, secretary of homeland security, and director of national intelligence.

But Giuliani wanted only wanted the position of Secretary of State. Trump eventually opted to choose former Exxon Mobil chief executive Rex Tillerson for that position.

Following that, it is thought Giuliani pulled himself out of the running for the other positions, after his business dealings came under media scrutiny.

Giuliani runs an international security consulting firm called Giuliani Partners.

Trump’s decision to appoint Giuliani was helped by the fact of his private sector cybersecurity expertise.

Trump has previously stated his intention to create a cybersecurity team within his first 90 days in office.

And some may feel it is a sign of Trump’s distrust of both the US intelligence agencies, and Washington federal agencies, that he has opted to ignore the collective cyber expertise of these agencies and instead create a private sector cyber team.

Political Issue

Cyber security has featured large in the Presidential campaign. Donald Trump for his part has always dismissed claims of Russian hacking on the US election.

However in a fiery press conference on Wednesday, Trump for the first accepted that the Russians were behind politically motivated hacking incidents, including the release of emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

The president-elect called cyber-intrusion “the fastest growing crime in the United States and much of the world” and said it was a “major threat” to national security.

However he also pointed out that it was not just the Russians hacking US systems, saying “everyone did it”.

Last October US intelligence officials officially blamed a Russian hacker group, which it said was linked to “senior” figures in the Russian government. These intelligence agencies concluded that Russian hackers had attempted to interfere with the US election process.

Indeed, cyber secruity matters have become so serious that President Obama ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and their families in retaliation for Russia’s cyber activities.

Quiz: Are you a security pro?