David M Jackson

USA TODAY

Donald Trump has found a slot for longtime supporter Rudy Giuliani, saying Thursday that the former New York City mayor will lead a task force on cybersecurity and serve as liaison to private industry on those issues.

Giuliani "will be sharing his expertise and insight as a trusted friend concerning private sector cyber security problems and emerging solutions developing in the private sector," the Trump transition said in a statement. "This is a rapidly evolving field both as to intrusions and solutions and it is critically important to get timely information from all sources."

An outspoken backer of Trump during the presidential campaign, Giuliani vied for the secretary of State position but was passed over for ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson.

Describing cyber attacks as a major threat to the nation, Giuliani said his role will be "to bring together the leaders in the private sector, the corporate leaders and the thought leaders to meet with the president so that he can get from them directly the problems they're facing and, maybe even more importantly, the solutions that they have."

As intelligence agencies accuse Russia of meddling in the election by hacking Democratic associates of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Trump has vowed to develop a plan to upgrade American cyber defenses (and offenses).

As part of that effort, the transition team said Trump "will be hosting a series of meetings with senior corporate executives from companies which have faced or are facing challenges similar to those facing the government and public entities today, such as hacking, intrusions, disruptions, manipulations, theft of data and identities, and securing information technology infrastructure."

Giuliani is a former U.S. attorney as well as mayor, and he has been a private security consultant in recent years.

He "was asked to initiate this process because of his long and very successful government career in law enforcement and his now sixteen years of work providing security solutions in the private sector," the Trump transition team said.

The aim, Giuliani said, is "to create a very vibrant and a very robust cyber defense for both the private sector and for the government."

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