President Trump’s ‘Impenetrable Cybersecurity’ Is Pure Fantasy

Nothing connected to the internet is safe from hackers. And I mean nothing. Modern cybersecurity is a constant cycle of breaches and patches. Systems are compromised, security experts play catch up, and eventually hackers find a new way in. Each side tries to outwit the other. But at any given moment, one of them is always a step ahead. President Donald Trump doesn’t seem to understand that. “Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded,” he tweeted July 9. Yes, Russia. Yes, really. Setting aside the question of what “many other negative things” Trump and Putin plan to guard, and how; and setting aside the absurdity of the idea that the United States would partner with Russia, of all countries, on a cybersecurity initiative, there is a basic question to answer: Is “impenetrable cybersecurity” even possible? No, it is not.