Trump authorizes private companies to conduct government cyberattacks against foreign criminal networks

The US government just handed a select group of private companies something that used to be reserved for intelligence agencies and military units: the ability to hack back.

President Trump signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum on August 12 titled “Expanding Capabilities to Combat Transnational Cyber-Enabled Crime.” The order authorizes vetted private US companies to conduct limited offensive cyber operations against foreign Cyber-Enabled Transnational Criminal Organizations, or CE-TCOs in the government’s ever-growing acronym library.

What the memorandum actually allows

The program creates two categories of authorized activity. “Cyber Surveillance Operations” involve undetected intelligence collection against foreign criminal networks. “Cyber Effects Operations” go further, aiming to disrupt or degrade the systems those criminal groups rely on.

The program is managed by the National Coordination Center, which was established under Executive Order 14159 on January 20, 2025. Day-to-day oversight falls to the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.