Trump enlists US tech groups for cyber privateering push

The US is enlisting the help of corporate America to fight cyber crime, a potential windfall for US tech groups and a victory for proponents of privateering within Donald Trump’s Maga coalition.

In a memo released late on Wednesday, the White House directed federal agencies to incorporate “the ingenuity of the private sector” in tackling global threats and establish a programme under which vetted companies would be allowed to conduct cyber attacks against criminal organisations.

In some scenarios, private corporations would be given permission by the government to manipulate, disrupt or physically destroy cyber networks, the memo states. Vetted groups would be asked to post a $1mn bond that would be forfeited if they went rogue, it adds.

The drive to enlist private companies in the fight against cyber crime comes as senior figures within the US president’s Maga movement call for the revival of privateering. Utah senator Mike Lee last year introduced legislation to reintroduce the historic constitutional practice of issuing “letters of marque and reprisal”, which authorised civilian ship owners to attack British merchant vessels during the American Revolutionary War.

The initiative has been privately supported by some US tech groups, including some run by Trump donors, which would stand to benefit from lucrative contracts. Others, including Google and Microsoft, have touted their readiness to help the government fight cyber crime.

The move also comes as the Trump administration has drastically reduced the size of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which fights cyber threats to critical systems.

The cuts to the agency have led members of the US intelligence community to argue for enlisting more capacity from the private sector, including AI companies, to fight foreign hacking groups that are often state-sponsored or tacitly supported by America’s adversaries.

Previous administrations had discussed enlisting the help of private companies. But Aiden Buzzetti, president of the Bull Moose Project, which has advocated for restoring the American privateer tradition in cyberspace, called the presidential memo “seismic” for “the people who understand the risks these new technologies pose”.

“The capabilities of non-state actors are rapidly expanding”, he said, adding that private actors “often have more capabilities and interesting tools than the government does”.

Buzzetti said he expected large tech groups and AI labs to join the programme, but that smaller groups that already assist the government with intelligence gathering would be among the beneficiaries.

Some companies have nonetheless been reluctant to engage in proposed privateering schemes, fearing they lack legal protections and could face retaliation from nation states.

The Trump memo “does not mean a general licence for lethal cyber attacks”, cyber security researcher Lukasz Olejnik said. But he warned that “attacks can spill across borders or hit state-linked systems, raising the risk of interstate escalation and conflict”.