By Sean Lyngaas, CNN
(CNN) – The Trump administration is bringing private companies into the fight against foreign cybercriminals through a significant policy change that experts warn might carry legal risks for those companies.
This approach allows selected companies to play a key role in hacking operations that have usually been managed by US law enforcement, intelligence, and military agencies.
These companies can utilize cyber tools to monitor foreign criminals and disrupt their activities under the “control and oversight” of a new federal initiative, as stated in a memo released Wednesday by President Donald Trump.
The aim of this program is to target foreign criminal organizations that lead to billions of dollars in losses for Americans each year. It specifically focuses on these groups rather than foreign governments.
“American businesses’ innovative capabilities have historically been underutilized in efforts to identify and disrupt criminal networks operating in cyberspace,” the memo says.
The US government already conducts considerable hacking against foreign entities. Some former officials expressed concerns that this new program could create coordination issues.
“The real risk is that you end up with a bunch of cyber privateers running around without any clear coordination or direction at the federal level,” said Andrew Schoka, a former Army officer at US Cyber Command.
Coordinating cyber operations “is already a major challenge for federal agencies, but now you’re adding in the complexity of private sector firms with much greater capability and speed,” Schoka told CNN.
This new initiative could help free up resources within the US government. Former FBI director Christopher Wray noted that Chinese government-backed hackers outnumber FBI cyber personnel by 50-to-1.
“Having private sector help to counter cyber criminals allows the US to disrupt more groups and frees up agencies like FBI and Cyber Command to focus more on countering nation states like China,” said Cynthia Kaiser, a former senior FBI cyber official.
“But the devil is in the details,” Kaiser told CNN. “Before they sign up, companies will need more explicit information about liability protections, types of government oversight, and foreign criminal use of US infrastructure, among other concerns.”
An increase in scams targeting all kinds of Americans recently has led some individuals to take matters into their own hands by hacking back against scammers’ networks.
Chris “Weld Pond” Wysopal, co-founder of cybersecurity firm Veracode, mentioned that this federal program would provide a more structured way to tackle these issues. However, he also expressed concern over what could happen if something goes wrong during government-sanctioned hacking operations carried out by private firms. For instance, attacking data centers abroad could unintentionally affect essential services like hospitals.
Foreign governments may also see employees from companies involved in this new hacking initiative who travel overseas as valid targets for detention or questioning, Wysopal added.
The Justice Department and Homeland Security will supervise this new hacking team. Any actions taken “directed at a United States person” must undergo additional legal review including from the Justice Department as per the memo’s guidelines.
However, Jason Kikta, a former Cyber Command official, pointed out that the memo does not clearly define how civil liberties for American citizens will be upheld during these operations.
“There is no clear oversight or review process on the determinations that will be made by unnamed political appointees,” Kikta said. “Defenders (of the memo) will say that it still requires activity to be constrained by DOJ and DHS authorities. But this order pushes liability on to the companies.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
Source link
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
Source link
