Trump wants to grant private cyber firms a license to hack back Donald Trump is allowing government agencies to contract private cybersecurity companies to carry out operations against cyber-enabled transnational criminal organizations (CE-TCOs). The US President signed a memo on Wednesday confirming a strategy hinted at earlier this year, saying participating companies can support national …
Back to the days of privateers and corsairs. A letter of marque will be issued if you pay a million to the Trump government. Ideas of this kind have been boiling for some time. A quote from Wikipedia: "On December 18, 2025 Lee [US Senator Mike Lee from Utah] introduced S.3567, a bill which would authorise the issuance of letters of marque against members of [Mexican] cartels".
I would “trust” this one one, although I would still take the precaution of making a suitable donation to Trump’s “library”
This is something Trump wants, because that’s what Putin and Xi have - namely groups that support the government but are at arms length to permit plausible deniability of their activities.
As an “alien”, I am all too aware Trump’s definition of what a CE-CTO is, includes foreign businesses and governments - including the UK…
However, given this is Trump and the plausible deniability, expect to be hung out to dry if there is any outcry about your activities…
There's no need for sarcasm- I'm sure Trump's cyberwar will be every bit as successful as the actual war he got himself involved in.
Still, it can't be denied that one *did* have the intended short-term effect of distracting from the Epstein files, even if it very quickly provided him with a bigger problem he can't magic away with the usual bloviating bullshittery.
Of course, the irony is that the Epstein files had in turn themselves been a demagogic would-be attempt to smear his Democrat opponents that ultimately came back to bite him on the arse.
Hmm, I'm spotting a pattern here.
Maybe this is all a masterful plan to find people that have been causing harm that now want to go legit, so he can round them up and send them to El Salvador or something!!!
The US's definition of 'cyber' is pretty wide/vague, so I guess you could employ your contractors for almost anything, but, in reality, i think the letters of marque will be useless compared to, say, Black Axe's known willingness to hack people up that cross them once they know who they are.
At least a PMC knows who's likely going to be shooting at him.
Absolutely. The order of the priorities is as fascinating as it is unsurprising:
prosperity, security, and freedom
And of course essentially all 'crime' is cyber-enabled now, while "against .. United States interests" just means with 'things we decide we don't like'.
It could easily be used to go after NGOs, political parties, journalists, etc
The US Constitution explicitly places the issuance of Letters of Marque in the hands of the Legislative branch, and other than 214 years since they were last issued, I don't see how this would be any different.
Of course, the SCOTUS might think otherwise as there is no "history" of the US using privateers to hack enemy nations and criminal organizations, so clearly it's not covered.
I await the day when a nuke is launched on accident by a firm trying to get a payday, or as retaliation for some catastrophic attack by a private firm. Good times.
"...as retaliation for some catastrophic attack by a private firm."
My most-likely scenario:
1. Private company hacks foreign adversary under government contract.
2. Said company gets back-hacked by adversary. All customer (private citizen) data is exposed/copied/exfiltrated.
3. Customers sue en masse -- likely becomes a class action.
4. Company hides behind government contract for immunity.
Conclusion: The public loses.
Oh, I was referring to a new SCOTUS standard of "historical usage" or whatever the hell they came up with. It's specifically around gun laws, I guess, but overall, the idea was that if dead dudes tried it before, it must be okay regardless of what the Constitution says in plain text.
My attempt at the joke was that since "hacking" was not something that the framers or founders did, the Constitution is silent on the matter and therefore it's allowable, despite there being a literal clause stating that only the Legislative branch can issue Letters of Marque and Reprisal. Therefore, the SCOTUS will find Trump can do whatever he wants, because reasons.
You are probably referring to 'originalism'. That's the legal theory that interprets the US constitution according to what the drafters may have originally had in mind, rather than what the text says. Basically, the originalists are pining for the 18th century. The icon is the closest thing I could find to a dead parrot.
There is history of the US using privateers/private militias against "enemy nations"
Happened a lot pre-Declaration - the nascent Congress didn't want to pay for a Navy to go up against the RN so, when the French were somewhat distracted by having their Navy ships regularly destroyed by the RN, often commissioned pirates free ships to prey on British ships.
And ignored when said freebooters 'accidentally' managed to hit American ships.
I suspect he’ll go after ransomware payments held in some form of ClownCoin.
The recovered ClownCoin will have to go through his OrangeClownCoin to be aggregated.
What is left after huge fees and a tiny cut for the hired hackers will go to a fund to pay himself what he believes The Treasury owe him.
See! He'll be saving The treasury billions.
Why doesn't any article about Trump begin with, Today, Trump once again showed that he is a moron and criminal by....
Why is he always sane washed? As soon as he appointed RFK Jr. It should have been obvious the man is either an idiot, or perhaps the project 2025 conspiracies are correct and he's trying to destroy the country. This is more of the same.
With a SCOTUS of yes people and a spineless congress I wonder how many who voted for him still don't realize how stupid he, and they, are?
> He told us he is a very stable genius
I seem to recall Idi Amin (or to use his full title: “His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular.”) claiming much the same.
From the White House bulletin:.
Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) ... These organizations conduct sustained cyber campaigns to perpetrate frauds that undermine American prosperity, security, and freedom.
It is possible to expand the definition of fraud to include anyone who tells a lie¹
Which logically leads to granting a $1mn bond holder the power to attack any organisation that publishes on the internet, anything that an American court president dislikes.
[1] and who determines what is "truth (social)?"
