Trump names Giuliani as cyber security adviser

The Trump transition team announced Thursday that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani will coordinate meetings of a group of private sector cyber security experts and advise President-elect Donald Trump on cyber security best practices for the federal government. Pool photo by Anthony Behar/UPI | License Photo

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 (UPI) — President-elect Donald Trump is tapping former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to advise the incoming administration on cyber security.

Trump’s transition team announced Thursday that Giuliani will assemble and head a cyber security committee that Trump will meet with regularly to improve how the government protects itself from electronic attacks.

The transition team said Trump chose Giuliani, who is chairman of global cyber security practice at the Greenberg Traurig law firm, because of his experience in law enforcement and corporate security.

“President-elect Trump is very pleased to announce former Mayor Rudy Giuliani will be sharing his expertise and insight as a trusted friend concerning private sector cyber security problems and emerging solutions developing in the private sector,” the transition team said in a press release. “This is a rapidly evolving field both as to intrusions and solutions and it is critically important to get timely information from all sources.”

Giuliani will be responsible for organizing semi-regular meetings for Trump that involve the heads of private security and technology companies to improve what has been shown as, at best, flawed security on government agency servers that have been hacked repeatedly in recent years.

While the transition team says its goal is to stay abreast of the best ways to improve the government’s cyber security, it also said of the meetings that “no consensus advice or recommendations resulting from group deliberations or interaction is expected or will be solicited.”

Giuliani told Fox News that his experience working with private sector cyber security companies will help him assemble and manage the group.

“Here’s what happened to us,” Giuliani said, “acquisition of information got way ahead of our ability to defend it.”

“It’s [Trump’s] belief, which I share, that a lot of the solutions are out there. We’re just not sharing them,” he added.

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