Trump signed memorandum authorizing private companies to conduct offensive cyber operations against foreign criminal groups

On August 12, 2026, President Trump signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum, "Expanding Capabilities to Combat Transnational Cyber-Enabled Crime," directing the Homeland Security Task Force's National Coordination Center to create a program authorizing vetted private companies to conduct offensive cyber operations against foreign transnational criminal organizations (TCOs). The program is to be overseen by co-Executive Directors from the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, who must approve individual operations; it does not grant participating companies unlimited hacking authority, but authorizes "limited cyber operations at the direction of the US government" following vetting. Participating companies must maintain a bond or escrow of at least $1 million and are encouraged to enter agreements with other private entities and with federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial agencies to gather threat information and propose operations against specified targets.

The memorandum extends Executive Order 14390 of March 6, 2026, which directed federal agencies to combat cyber-enabled crime, by adding a private-sector operational role that has traditionally been reserved for government agencies. Legal experts have raised questions about the risks companies could face as they become directly involved in offensive international cyber operations, including potential tension with the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act's restrictions on unauthorized computer access; notably, the memo does not amend the CFAA the way earlier proposals to open private-sector hacking would have, relying instead on an interpretation of an existing exemption. The program echoes a distinct proposal that has circulated in conservative policy circles in recent years: authorizing "letters of marque" for private-sector cyber firms, modeled on the letters historically granted to sea privateers -- an Article I power the Constitution assigns to Congress, not the President, to authorize.