Rudy Giuliani To Head Up Trump's Cybersecurity Team As The Internet Laughs At Giuliani's Security Bona Fides
from the sigh dept
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.”
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.
Oh, people are already poking it. pic.twitter.com/pxoi2M7HFU
— Kevin Beaumont (@GossiTheDog) January 13, 2017
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.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: cybersecurity, donald trump, rudy giuliani
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Knowledge is Overrated.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Knowledge is Overrated.
http://www.npr.org/2016/08/16/490200895/rudy-giuliani-claims-no-terror-attacks-in-u-s-pr e-obama
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Cybersecurity Leader
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Cybersecurity Leader
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Cybersecurity Leader
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Our bad
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Perfect guy to run the cyber thingy.
But that's not the funny part, no. How could it be, when we're talking about Drumpf's cyber thingy? There's got to be more...
If you actually try to navigate to giulianisecurity.com you get a (wait for it...) server not found error.
One can only wonder why.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
The question now is was it taken down out of embarrassment or because it was knocked down.
Way to cyber Rudy!
Great pick Drumpf!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
EPA somebody who's sued the EPA.
Labor somebody who doesn't like minimum wage.
FCC somebody who doesn't like communications.
Cyber Security somebody who doesn't know a bit from a bite (yes, bite, not byte).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Keep in mind that the architect of Trump's presidency - his Karl Rove - is Steve Bannon of Breitbart, a champion of white supremacists.
Now he's systematically appointing people to lead government departments who want to tear down those departments.
This is what makes the PeeOTUS claim so scary: No-one would be foolish enough NOT to expect someone like Trump to be spied on in that particular suite. If the allegation is true, it could only mean that Trump WANTS to inflict maximum damage on the US government.
Which sounds insane, but its consistent with his cabinet appointments and other decisions.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Question for Trump
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
In His Defense...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Check the bad hair-piece...
Now, all they have to do is sit back, relax inside their siberian prison and type "I think it, you say it."
It's the only thing that makes sense out of the Cheetoh faced shit-gibbon's decisions to put the people in charge of the government entities that he has.
Seriously, for each assignment, it's as if he and/or his staff have gone out of their way to find *the* *absolute* *worst* *candidate* *possbile* and then selected them.
In my opinion, each and every one of his decisions have been akin to putting a convicted child molester in charge of the local daycare.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Check the bad hair-piece...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Giuliani reassured us when NY was a smoking ruin;
I really don't know how SNL keeps up; they must have to tear up 10-15 scripts/day due to being gazumped by Trump (ga-Trumped? ga-Tweeted?).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Seems legit
Hmmm...
That is a good thing, right?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Typical
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Typical
They're not conservative any more (the Dem right wing has taken that role over), they're anarchists. And anarchy always leads to tyranny by creating a power vacuum that lets them in.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Giuliani conversation with staffer
Staffer: Great idea, sir. Encryption is necessary. It really is a high-tech padlock.
G: No, I mean actual padlocks. We need more padlocks. We can lock everything up. Put everything in boxes and then lock it up with padlocks. Not the cheap school gym locker kind, we'll get those huge industrial worksite padlocks.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Please don't fatshame
That was uncalled for. Their weight and residential location are irrelevant. It's the fact that they are assholes that got them referenced by Trump.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Please don't fatshame
So maybe you should talk to Trump about that.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Please don't fatshame
It's the fact that they are assholes that got them referenced by Trump.
I'd like to point out that despite being assholes, it's quite feasible that they have better opsec than Giuliani's "security firm," and are thus better qualified.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
You guys, these are the "best people" out there. So Great. You wouldn't believe how smart. Trust me.
This is how we're rewarded ambiguity in campaign statements. Would anyone have been excited if he'd been naming these names the whole time?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Plus Bush-isms were just comedy gold.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
For Gulf War I, Bush I gave the professionals in the Pentagon a set of goals and let them handle it. For Gulf War II, Bush II and his band of chickenhawks micromanaged the Pentagon and made the decisions themselves.
It didn't go well. (Unless you're Cheney and the other chickenhawks who owned stock in Halliburton/KBR. Small wonder it lasted longer than WWII.)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Not that shocking
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Not that shocking
Rubbish. Nobody thinks that Giuliani personally set up the website. But, he *did* hire the people who did, who did a bad job and then the site was allowed to fester with major issues that were not fixed. He hired the people who failed, no matter how you look at it.
That is exactly the problem. Nobody thinks that Giuliani is going to personally set up any security, either. But he *will* be in charge of hiring skilled competent people to do that. If he can't make sure that the public facing window of his security company is competently set up, what is the policy and government defence he's in charge of going to look like?
The issue isn't his personal IT skills, the issue his ability to manage the job at hand - and he has failed miserably.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
T Minus 7 Days ...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What do you expect.....
I'm all for democracy but seriously the guy is a fucking fruitcake, with extra nuts. I don't even live in the US and I'm genuinely worried about how the world is turning.
I wouldn't trust him to look after the contents of my fridge, never mind the US presidency.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What do you expect.....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
step 1. in the event of terrorist attack, WOPR (from the movie wargames) will be used to fire missiles at the enemy
step 2. All citizens will be intructed to lift the telephone handset so the internet cuts out.
step 3. A teenage boy will be commanded to 'cyber hack' through a wireframe maze, shooting all the enemy firewalls until the screen reads 'ACCESS GRANTED' in large green letters.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Can we get that button yet?
Given these kinds of stories, and what they imply for the next four years(at least), we really need that 'Sad But True' button, as I imagine it would get a lot of use.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Can we get that button yet?
My posts occasionally get voted "insightful" or "funny." On Sunday I made the "Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week" list again. It turns out that I make larger donations when people laugh at my jokes or call me insightful.
A "Sad But True" button wouldn't have the same effect.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Can we get that button yet?
Have an insightful for giving me the idea.
And thank-you! TD needs all the support it can get right now.
Money should not equal speech when someone like billionaire Thiel can accumulate more money in one day for doing nothing(interest), than 50 000 of us will donate in one week.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]