In the land of the free, home of the brave, and the birthplace of the internet, a festering sentiment of protest has bubbled to the surface and exposed itself to the world by catapulting Donald J. Trump to the presidency.
And yet, even as Trump peppered the campaign period with his many controversial stands on polarizing issues, his cybersecurity stance remained underrepresented. Now, with the President-elect’s incoming victory parade to the White House, the time is ripe to buckle up and ask the question that has Silicon Valley all riled up:
What will become of data privacy and cloud security in Donald Trump’s America?
As is typical of Trump, his position on things tends to be unpredictable and changeable, even contradictory at times; firm one moment, vacillating the next.
Below are some of his more weighty (and coherent) public pronouncements, based on his website’s position statements, interviews with the media, and authored books.
1. Trump on mass surveillance and the Patriot Act
Trump’s 2015 interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt exposes his very telling stand on mass surveillance and the Patriot Act. “I err on the side of security,” he said.
The Patriot Act is a law intended to help government agencies detect and prevent potential acts of terrorism. According to Trump, he is in favor of reactivating a provision under the Patriot Act that allows the government to collect phone call metadata — effectively skirting citizens’ privacy rights by doing so.
“When you have the world looking at us and would like to destroy us as quickly as possible, I err on the side of security,” Trump argued.
Trump also said that he takes certain precautions for himself, “I assume when I pick up my telephone, people are listening to my conversations anyway.” From this commentary, it seems obvious that he is willing to forgo certain rights (even accepting that such privacy violations may also apply to him) for the sake of security. “It’s pretty sad commentary, but I err on the side of security,” he iterated.
As for mass surveillance, Trump has indicated more recently that he wants to enforce surveillance of certain mosques and that he wants to heavily monitor incoming Muslim refugees, particularly Syrians – if he lets any of them in the country at all.
“I want surveillance of these people that are coming in, the Trojan horse. I want to know who the hell they are,” Trump said.
2. Trump supports the NSA over Snowden
For the contentious Edward Snowden versus the National Security Agency (NSA) issue, Trump’s reaction was to call Snowden “terrible” and a “traitor” in his 2013 interview with Fox News. He even went so far as to suggest that Snowden be executed for “betraying” the NSA’s operation.
As for what the NSA has done, Trump has also made his position clear. Certain situations warrant certain actions, and for President-elect Trump, the NSA’s anti-terrorism efforts take precedence over citizen privacy. After all, as Trump said in his book, Time to Get Tough: Making America #1 Again, “All freedoms flow from national security.”
3. Trump believes in closing parts of the internet
At his Pearl Harbor Day rally speech, Trump voiced out a radical suggestion to shut the internet down “in some way” to curb the likes of ISIS and other terrorist organizations from spreading their operations. He even called for the help of experts such as Bill Gates “and a lot of different people” who, said Trump, really understand the internet.
“I would certainly be open to closing areas where we are at war with somebody,” Trump said, adding “I sure as hell don’t want to let people that want to kill us and kill our nation use our internet.”
4. Trump supports the FBI over Apple
When Apple refused to cooperate with the FBI in an effort to break into an iPhone and expose the San Bernardino mass shooting suspects, Donald Trump decided to boycott the iPhone maker, and urged others to do the same through a February 2016 tweet:
“Boycott all Apple products until such time as Apple gives cellphone info to authorities regarding radical Islamic terrorist couple from Cal.”
5. Trump believes cyber warfare is the future and supports development of cyber weapons
“To truly make America safe, we must make cybersecurity a major priority for both the government and the private sector,” Trump said in a speech to the Retired American Warriors.
The President-elect, then but another contender for the highest seat in America, talked about his plan to order a rigorous review of the US’ cyberinfrastructure, its defenses and weaknesses. Cyber attacks are a critical national security concern for Trump and vowed to create a joint task force to work together with federal, state, local, and international law enforcement authorities with the goal to “crush this still-developing area of crime.”
In a rousing pronouncement, Trump went on to say: “[...] the United States must possess […] the unquestioned capacity to launch crippling cyber counter-attacks. […] This is the warfare of the future. America’s dominance in this arena must be unquestioned.”
6. Defend America, attack her enemies
Finally, would Trump use cyber weapons to fight America’s enemies? “Yes,” Trump affirmed to NYT’s David Sanger during the Republican National Convention. “I am a fan of the future, and cyber is the future.”
In a prepared speech posted on his official website, he adds: “I will make certain that our military is the best in the world in both cyber offense and defense,” he said, also mentioning his willingness to be proactive in “strengthening and augmenting” the United States Cyber Command.
In the same speech, Trump outlined more of his cybersecurity plans, such as:
- Develop not only defensive, but offensive secure technologies as well.
- Combine the best military, civilian, and private sector cybersecurity experts into a team (called Cyber Review Team) dedicated to assessing and enhancing security systems and technology to defend law enforcement and other government agencies.
- Conduct follow-up reviews that begin with the most sensitive systems, to encompass all other systems, and to make these “as secure as modern technology permits”
Conclusion
From these pronouncements, it’s safe to assume that Trump leans toward enhancing America’s cyber warfare capacity, at the expense of possibly compromising citizens’ private data in the process. But if we’re to take Trump’s word for it, only in matters of grave national security.
Post-election, his website has since been updated with his vision statements that seem to echo (and strengthen) this stance.
To sum up, and at the risk of making a pun, the Trump administration plans to “make America’s cyber infrastructure game great again,” so to speak. What does this mean to you as a citizen? Perhaps, follow the President-elect’s example. Always assume you are being watched, and act accordingly.
The post Where Does Donald Trump Stand on Data Privacy and Security? appeared first on Cloudswave Blog.
