The new order sweeps away decades of existing U.S. cybersecurity policy prohibiting private companies from conducting ‘hack back’ attacks or offensive cyber operations.
Archived version: https://archive.is/20260813215558/https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/13/in-a-first-us-will-allow-some-private-firms-to-carry-out-cyberattacks/
As usual we’re getting the shitty cyberpunk future. The franchise nation-states, the corporate metanationals, the incessant spying, corporate control, collapsed environment etc… with none of the cool personal tech or flying cars.
What? Your 5inch oracle isn’t cool enough?
God, I wish mine was that long. And it’s no oracle, it makes awful decisions as often as I do.
we just need to make it fully the responsibility of the company to prove items were stolen, licenses agreed to, and strengthen first sale doctrin; and the cool personal tech will follow.
Didn’t they used to do this with pirates and merchant ships?
Shadowrunners, start your engines
Seriously, you beat me to it. All I know is that I’m not tangling with the Voodoo Boys.
Only in the U.S. would cyber warfare be privatized…
Israel does the same.
China as well.
I thought most of the attacks we get from China are state sponsored
It’s about private companies who are allowed to hack, not the government themselves. And China has those too, like Israel and the US.
May as well add Russia to the group. Russia allows hacker groups to exist so they can be given assignments.
Laws today exist seemingly to decide who can win and who can’t. I’d like to think they can exist to wisely guide our behaviors to encourage a better future, maybe I’m naive.
Laws have always been the way the upper class controls the lower classes. When we had more bargaining power they spent more effort to keep us happy, but as we gradually lose bargaining power we are seeing them take more and more.
To elaborate: laws always existed to decide who wins and who doesn’t. It just used to be more subtle mechanisms, like capital giving access to lawyers and skilled labor. Other times it was super obvious, such as with slavery.
Reminds me of the thread two days ago about the regime issuing letters of marque.
I also found this relevant thread from a year ago while searching for the other one.
Trump’s cronies really want to go all-in on the mercantilism, don’t they?
I’m waiting for when one country signs a contact to allow patrols where the company gets salvage rights to all trespassing ships illegally fishing within their waters.
Problem is, the device the firms might be attacking is possibly just a zombie. A victim themselves.
It’ll make em stop.
It doesn’t have to be destructive either. Wifatch is a good example.
Oh yeah sure. The private corps are just going to not be destructive. They’re always so careful with everything else after all.
This will be be a fascinating period for future historians to study, providing there’s time for people to do that between hunting for mutant gilas and hiding from ruinstorms.
Future historians won’t be able to figure out squat, not since websites turn over fast and data gets lost in remodels.
The only thing that may be reliable is the trash, the physical trash. And all they can say about that is we were remodeling like we had the money.
Every accusation
As a treat.
And so a new golden age of pirates began…
