The Trump administration has issued an order allowing US companies to hack overseas groups under certain conditions. This move gives vetted companies a prominent role in hacking operations that have historically been the domain of US law enforcement, spy, and military agencies.

Program Details

Companies can use cyber tools to surveil foreign criminals and disrupt their networks under the control and oversight of the new federal program. The program’s goal is to punish foreign criminal groups that cause Americans billions of dollars in annual losses.

The US government is already doing a lot of hacking on foreign targets. The new program risks having too many cooks in the kitchen, some former officials said. 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.

Concerns and Benefits

Deconflicting in cyber operations is already a major challenge for federal agencies, but now you’re adding in the complexity of private sector firms with a lot more capability and speed. The new program could free up US government resources. Chinese government-backed hackers outnumber FBI cyber personnel 50-to-1, according to former FBI director Christopher Wray.

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. However, the devil is in the details. 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.

Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.