Trump Vows Major Upgrades to Nation’s Cybersecurity

Decrying vulnerabilities in America’s cyber defenses, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump Monday vowed a vigorous effort to deflect hackers and conduct offensive actions against America’s enemies.

Speaking at a veterans event in Herndon, Virginia, Trump said cyber defense is one more area where President Obama has allowed the United States to fall behind.

“Hillary Clinton’s only experience in cybersecurity involves her criminal scheme to violate the law, engineering a massive cover-up, and putting the entire nation in harm’s way.”

“To truly make America safe, we must make cybersecurity a major priority, which I don’t believe we’re doing right now for both government and the private sector,” he said.

Trump also used the opportunity to take another shot at Democrat Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server to bypass the government’s system for storing and transmitting classified information.

“We don’t want to have any servers in the basement, by the way, folks,” he said. “Hillary Clinton’s only experience in cybersecurity involves her criminal scheme to violate the law, engineering a massive cover-up, and putting the entire nation in harm’s way.”

The fact that Clinton told FBI agents that she did not know what the “C” marking in confidential emails meant shows she is “totally unfit to hold the office of president,” he said, adding that Clinton “remembered practically nothing” when questioned by the FBI.

Trump cited a number of recent examples of major corporations that successfully have been targeted by sophisticated hackers. Hacks stole 73 million emails from JPMorgan Chase; eBay failed to protect 150 million passwords; and 40 million customer credit card numbers were stolen.

The government has been hit, as well. Trump pointed to the theft of 20 million identities of people under FBI background checks. The Obama administration has fined private businesses for security breaches, but generally there is no accountability for lapses by government agencies.

“The costs in terms of privacy, our security, and our financial sector are truly extraordinary,” Trump said.

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Trump said he would order a thorough review of America’s cyber defenses and weaknesses against nations like China, Russia, and North Korea, along with non-state actors and organized crime.

Trump said he also would set up a task force of prosecutors and law enforcement officials at the state, federal, and even international levels. He said he would model the effort on the concerted and coordinated campaign that weakened the Mafia.

“We can learn from this history,” he said.

Part of the solution is beefing up the military’s capacity to fight cyber war, he said.

“I will make sure that our military is the best in the world in both cyber offense and defense — and in every other way, by the way … We’ve rarely needed it more that we do right now,” he said. “This is the warfare of the future. America’s dominance in this arena must be unquestioned, and today it’s totally questioned. People don’t even know if we have the capability that we’re supposed to have.”

Trump took a number of questions from the veterans, addressing various topics:

• On the shrinking Army. Trump said the Armed Forces are “depleted” and reiterated his vow to reverse recent cuts. He also said he would make America respected again. “We’re not respected to the extent that we were. And if we keep going like this, we won’t be respected at all,” he said. “You look at what Russia’s doing with their nuclear capability, and the newness of their capability, and look at what we’re doing.”
• On making allies pay their fair share. Trump, who caused a mass conniption within the foreign policy Establishment earlier this year by suggesting that the United States is carrying a disproportionate share of the load for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), repeated his view that other countries need to do more. “We’re defending them for a fraction of the cost. We have to go to those countries and ask them to make contributions that are greater than the contributions they’re making right now,” he said. “We’re going to protect them. We’re going to remain loyal to them. But at the same time, it’s a two-way street. They have to help us, also.”
• On the need to bluntly confront terrorism. “We have a president that won’t use the term ‘radical Islamic terrorism,’ won’t use it, will spend long periods of time explaining to people why he won’t use it,” he said. “At the end of the explanation, nobody knows why he still won’t use it because the explanation is no good.”
• On the harm in telegraphing America’s military moves. Trump noted news reports about plans to attack Islamic State forces in Mosul, Iraq. “Wouldn’t it be better, if we’re going to go after Mosul, to not say anything and do it? And not announce it?” he asked. He said he would keep the enemy guessing. “We are going to hit ISIS hard, and I mean very hard,” he said. “But I do think this: The American public doesn’t have to know the date and hour and second that we’re going to attack and from what side we’re going to attack.”

Trump also reiterated his plan to offer veterans more health care choices and narrow the military’s role to war fighting.

“We have a politically correct military, and it’s getting more and more politically correct every day,” he said.