Plan to create cyber-partnership draws ridicule

[struggle4progress]

Laura King

... Trump’s tweets touted his talk with Putin about creating an “impenetrable Cyber Security unit” to combat abuses like hacking and online propaganda ...

“It’s not the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard, but it’s pretty close,” said .. Graham of South Carolina ...

... McCain .. was asked on CBS’ “Face the Nation” whether Russia was really likely to provide any help in combating election interference.

“I am sure that Vladimir Putin could be of enormous” — the Arizona Republican paused to chortle — “assistance to that effort, since he’s doing the hacking” ...

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pol-trump-russia-20170709-story.html

[struggle4progress]

1. Plan to work with Putin on cybersecurity makes no sense

By Henry Farrell
July 9 at 2:38 PM

... U.S. politicians, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), have reacted with consternation. Rubio suggests that partnering with Putin on cybersecurity would be like partnering with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on a “Chemical Weapons Unit” (Assad is widely believed to have carried out chemical weapons attacks on his own people). The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has defended Trump ...

Critics in the United States have unsurprisingly interpreted this proposal as a transparent ploy by Trump to sideline accusations that Russian hackers helped him win the presidential election. However, even if Trump’s proposal is taken at face value, it doesn’t make much sense.

If the proposed cybersecurity unit were to work effectively, the United States would need to share extensive information with Russia on how U.S. officials defend elections against foreign tampering. The problem is, however, that information that is valuable for defending U.S. systems is, almost by definition, information that is valuable for attacking them, too. This is one reason U.S. officials have not previously proposed any far-reaching arrangement with Russia on cybersecurity. Providing such information would almost certainly give the Russians a map of vulnerabilities and insecurities in the system that they could then exploit for their own purposes ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/07/09/trumps-plan-to-work-with-putin-on-cybersecurity-makes-no-sense-heres-why/

[struggle4progress]

2. Talk of cybersecurity unit takes spotlight

BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 07/09/17 12:47 PM EDT

... Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Sunday praised Trump's cybersecurity discussion with Putin, calling it a "significant accomplishment" ...

... Schiff (D-Calif.) rejected the idea that the U.S. could work with Russia on cybersecurity, saying the Russians are not a "credible partner."

"I think that would be dangerously naive for this country. If that’s our best election defense, we might as well just mail our ballot boxes to Moscow," Schiff said ...

http://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/341192-trump-talk-of-cyber-security-unit-with-russia-earns-mixed-reviews

[Gidney N Cloyd]

3. I saw Mnuchin. He was almost unbearable.

[murielm99]

4. My husband watched him.

I can't stand those shows. I leave the room.

All this talk about a cyber security partnership is just that: talk. Again, we have to watch what they do, not what they say.

[blueinredohio]

5. McCain and Graham say this b.s. then go along with everything he says or does