President Donald Trump has signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum authorising US federal law enforcement to conduct offensive cyber operations against transnational criminal organisations operating abroad.
Washington, in short, is giving itself formal permission to hack the hackers, and it is roughly as consequential as that sounds.
The memorandum takes aim at foreign criminal groups that harm Americans through ransomware, phishing, financial fraud, sextortion and the sort of AI-assisted impersonation scams that have exploded over the past year.
The stated aim is to disrupt those operations at source, rather than wait for the money and the harm to reach American shores.
The numbers behind the order are genuinely grim. The White House cites $20.8bn in reported cybercrime losses in 2025, and says 73% of US adults have experienced online scams.
