President-elect Donald Trump has tapped former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani to share “his expertise and insight as a trusted friend" on cybersecurity.
No word on whether Giuliani, an important surrogate for Trump during the campaign, will be paid for his work. But he will be tasked with leading a team of experts, because of his "long and very successful government career in law enforcement, and his now 16 years of work providing security solutions in the private sector," according to a statement from the Trump transition office.
During a phone call with the media, Giuliani said there's an "awful lot of research going on both here, in Israel, in Germany on cyber-defense." He said that tapping that braintrust will be his main focus.
Giuliani, who is chairman of the global-security practice at the Greenberg Traurig law firm and has his own security-consulting company, said he will focus on bringing "things the private sector (is) doing" regarding cyber defenses to the President-elect's attention.
The transition team’s statement also noted that “from time to time because of the changing nature of this problem, it is contemplated that the President-elect will be hosting a series of meetings with senior corporate executives from companies which have faced or are facing challenges similar to those facing the government and public entities today, such as hacking, intrusions, disruptions, manipulations, theft of data and identities, and securing information technology infrastructure.”
The news amid a firestorm of controversy over Russia’s alleged hacking operation during the election. Fuel was added to that fire this week, with an unverified intelligence report being made public that alleges collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, going back “years,” stemming from blackmail on the part of the Russians.