The US government wants to use private firms to conduct offensive cyberattacks against foreign adversaries, potentially escalating electronic conflict, which is currently often carried out by secretive intelligence agencies. The White House plans to make public its intention to enlist private companies in more aggressive efforts to go after criminal and state-sponsored hackers in a new national cyber strategy. The strategy is expected to be released by the Office of the National Cyber Director in the next few weeks, and the administration is expected to provide more information after its release, as well as an executive order that could outline private firms’ roles and provide them with additional legal protections.[1]
Included in Trump’s multi-trillion-dollar tax and spending legislation is a provision designating a $1 billion boost for offensive cyber operations, which have typically been conducted by the military’s Cyber Command or intelligence agencies. The law does not prescribe how the money should be spent, but its inclusion in the cornerstone financial bill is a signal of the administration’s importance of offensive cyber.
The initiative to include industry would open lucrative new business opportunities to firms that have traditionally contracted with the government on defensive strategies rather than offensive measures. But it comes with risks. There is currently no legal basis for private firms to conduct their own offensive cyber operations. Additionally, any operations to take down adversary infrastructure could put private firms in the crosshairs of foreign governments, whose intelligence services often use affiliates to carry out cyberattacks.
The drive to enlist private companies reflects a growing view within the intelligence community and the administration that the US needs more capacity to fight hostile hacking groups that often work with foreign state support. Adding those firms would both expand the government’s cyber warfare resources and free up intelligence agencies and the military to focus on work only they can handle.
The cyber strategy draft, five pages long, also calls for streamlining data security and cyber regulations, modernizing federal systems, securing critical infrastructure, and promoting the adoption of post-quantum cryptography and secure quantum computing. Trump administration officials have, for months, made clear their intent to take more aggressive action against criminal and state-sponsored hackers. Alexei Bulazel, the National Security Council’s senior director for cyber, declared at a security conference in September that the administration is “unapologetic, unafraid to do offensive cyber.”
AI is intensifying the scale and sophistication of cyberattacks, enabling faster, more adaptive, and less traceable intrusions, transforming both defensive and offensive strategies and hybrid warfare. Private operators of critical infrastructure remain reluctant to adopt offensive capabilities due to the perceived legal risks, attribution issues, and potential collateral damage. Offensive cyber operations will remain concentrated within the US government, intelligence agencies, and the Pentagon.
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[1] https://www.cybersecurityintelligence.com/blog/the-us-is-going-private-for-offensive-cyber-8969.html
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