President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement last week that he will take a personal interest in strengthening the nation’s cyber security posture is welcome and represents a continuation of the efforts and progress the Obama administration has made bolstering the defense of information networks in the United States, a White House official said on Friday.
“I think the recognition of the fact that this needs to continue, and I say continue to be the top priority for the next administration is something I welcome, absolutely welcome,” Lisa Monaco, President Barack Obama’s assistant Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, said on Friday at a discussion on cyber security at The Aspen Institute. “The evolution of the threat across threat actors, across threat vectors, across tactics, techniques and procedures has expanded so exponentially that and the defenses have indeed lagged behind. We’ve made tremendous progress in this administration and have set up a framework. There is absolutely more to do.”
Last Thursday Trump announced that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani will serve as an outside adviser on private sector cyber security matters and on emerging solutions being developed by the private sector. Trump also plans to host rolling meetings with senior corporate executives on the challenges they are facing in the cyber realm.
Following the release earlier this month of an unclassified report by the intelligence community on Russia’s attempts to influence the presidential election, Trump said he would order a report be completed within 90 days of becoming president on how to keep the U.S. safe from cyber attacks.
In a press release on Thursday Trump’s transition team said that “Cyber intrusion is the fastest growing crime in the United States and much of the world.” It added that “As the use of modern communication and technology has moved forward at unparalleled-speed the necessary defenses have lagged behind. The President-elect recognizes that this needs immediate attention and input from private sector leaders to help the government plan to make us more secure.”
Monaco said that that the outset of Obama’s first term he stated that cyber security is the greatest economic and national security threat facing the U.S., adding that she hopes that the incoming administration feels the same way.
Cyber security has to be made a high-level agenda item for each of Trump’s cabinet secretaries, Monaco said. Obama did this, she said, so that department heads didn’t look at cyber security “as just the IT guys’ problem.”
On the subject of the Department of Homeland Security’s designation this month of U.S. electoral infrastructure as critical, Monaco said this doesn’t mean the federal government will be overseeing state and local election processes. Instead, it prioritizes select information sharing from the federal government to the state and local election systems, and puts election infrastructure into a regime that is protected under international norms guiding all countries.