LF: Rudy Giuliani To Head Up Trump's Cybersecurity Team As The Internet Laughs At Giuliani's Security Bona Fides

Title: Rudy Giuliani To Head Up Trump's Cybersecurity Team As The Internet Laughs At Giuliani's Security Bona Fides
Source: TechDirt
URL Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/2 ... anis-security-bona-fides.shtml
Published: Jan 13, 2017
Author: Timothy Geigner
Post Date: 2017-01-14 13:55:33 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 1932
Comments: 14

Our soon-to-be American President has made quite a show about bolstering the country's efforts for cybersecurity. The "cyber", as he is wont to call the issue, is claimed to be in disrepair and requires brave new minds to protect the country's computer systems from hacks and attacks from outside forces. We've already discussed in the past how depressing it is to learn just how little actual computer science knowledge exists floating in the minds of our elected leaders and their top-level appointees. There is an opportunity to get very smart, very well-educated people on matters of cybersecurity involved in government.

But it appears that Trump is choosing instead to pass on that opportunity, instead tapping Rudy Giuliani to head up his cybersecurity task force. Giuliani runs a consulting firm that claims to be involved in cybersecurity, of course, except that the extent of its work on the subject appears to be the claims that it does so.

Giuliani does head a consulting firm in New York called Giuliani Partners that supposedly focuses on cybersecurity, but Vice’s Motherboard reported yesterday, it’s tough to tell what they actually do, and it’s even tougher to tell what Giuliani does for them, besides being the face of the operation while saying outrageous things on television.
As Motherboard’s Jason Koebler and Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai wrote, “Unlike many other cybersecurity firms, Giuliani Partners does not publish white papers about malware and large-scale hacks, or push for increased adoption of encryption, which would enhance cybersecurity across the board. In fact, it doesn’t talk much about cybersecurity at all, instead choosing to focus on its more traditional anti-crime consulting work.”

Computer Hope

So we're off to a great start. Instead of bringing in someone with actual knowledge and experience in cybersecurity, the President Elect has instead put a cybersecurity cosplayer in charge. And not even a particularly good impersonator of a cybersecurity expert, it seems, as the internet has already begun poking fun at the security measures, or lack thereof, Giuliani Consulting has deployed for its own website.

We might be better off if Trump decided to employ one of the four-hundred pound slobs in their mother's basement he's referenced previously, as they seem to have a better handle on the very basics of web security than Giuliani. And they'd probably be cheaper as well, as the former mayor is on the record that his "cybersecurity firm" was more a venture of opportunism than one of added value for his clients.

Look, combating risks on "the cyber" (sigh) may indeed require a high-profile face, if only for the purposes of reassurance and PR. Sadly, those purposes are not fulfilled by a former mayor with a cybersecurity company that doesn't do cybersecurity, even for its own website.

from the sigh dept