Donald Trump Says a Strong Defense Against Cyberattacks Is Essential

By ASHLEY PARKER new York Times HERNDON Va. Donald J. Trump on Monday called for strengthening the nations defenses against cyberattacks saying that as president he would create a joint law enforcement task force to handle both cybersecurity as well as offensive cyber warfare. Cyberattacks from foreign governments especially China Russia North Korea along with nonstate terrorist actors and organized criminal groups constitute one of our most critical national security concerns" Mr. Trump told a group of retired military veterans on Monday. The scope of our cybersecurity problem is enormous. Our government our businesses our trade secrets and our citizens most sensitive information are all facing constant cyberattacks and reviews by the enemy." Mr. Trump who once suggested that Russia hack Hillary Clintons emails also stressed the importance of being able to wage crippling" cyberattacks against the nations adversaries calling it the warfare of the future." We should turn cyber warfare into one of our greatest weapons against the terrorists." Mr. Trumps remarks came after a damaging week of largely self-inflicted missteps underscored by a drop in many polls which began last Monday with a shaky debate performance against Hillary Clinton and continued throughout the week to include a late-night Twitter rant against Alicia Machado a former Miss Universe who is Hispanic. His comments Monday which he delivered from Teleprompters before taking several questions from the friendly audience seemed to be an effort to present a more disciplined front before the second presidential debate which takes place on Sunday. In the first debate Mr. Trump had given a rambling response to a question about cybersecurity ranging from fears of lone wolf hackers (It also could be somebody sitting on their bed who weighs 400 pounds O.K.?") to his 10-year-old sons technological prowess (He has computers. He is so good with these computers its unbelievable."). On Monday Mr. Trump offered a more tightly focused speech on the need for increased cybersecurity. If elected he said he would instruct the Department of Justice to create a task force in conjunction with international federal state and local law enforcement to crush this still developing area of crime." And he said he would ask his secretary of defense and the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to present recommendations for strengthening and augmenting our cyber command." During the question-and-answer session the Republican nominee addressed the issue of post-traumatic stress disorder calling for a very very robust" mental health program for veterans. Then Mr. Trump seemed to imply that handling the trauma of war is a question of strength. When you talk about the mental health problems when people come back from war and combat they see things that maybe a lot of the folks in this room have seen many times over" he said. And youre strong and you can handle it but a lot of people cant handle it."  He also hinted at returning to criminal profiling citing Israel as an example of a country that engages in successful profiling efforts and called for a more old-fashioned" method of law enforcement. You know in our country lately were more interested in protecting the criminals than we are in making sure that were strong and powerful and know what were doing" he said. Were so so interested in protecting criminals and people that want to do us harm and I think that we have to go back to a little more old fashioned method of thinking if that makes sense. I will appoint an attorney general who will reform the Department of Justice like it was necessary after Watergate."  Find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today and get politics news updates via Facebook Twitter and the First Draft newsletter.