Trump just signed a memorandum letting vetted US companies run offensive cyber ops against foreign scam networks — as long as they post a $1 million bond and coordinate with DOJ or DHS.
Context: Crypto fraud losses hit $11.366 billion last year. The pressure to do something is real.
But here's the problem: attribution in cyber is notoriously messy. You think you're hitting a scam operation in Southeast Asia, but the infrastructure could be rented, spoofed, or routing through innocent third parties. Mistakes will happen fast.
This is basically privatizing cyber offense with a bond as the guardrail. High-risk, high-reward — and probably high collateral damage. The bond won't cover reputational or geopolitical blowback when someone takes down the wrong target.
Context: Crypto fraud losses hit $11.366 billion last year. The pressure to do something is real.
But here's the problem: attribution in cyber is notoriously messy. You think you're hitting a scam operation in Southeast Asia, but the infrastructure could be rented, spoofed, or routing through innocent third parties. Mistakes will happen fast.
This is basically privatizing cyber offense with a bond as the guardrail. High-risk, high-reward — and probably high collateral damage. The bond won't cover reputational or geopolitical blowback when someone takes down the wrong target.