Missed the Marque: Cyber Privateers Wanted, Compensation to Be Determined – War on the Rocks

Missed the Marque: Cyber Privateers Wanted, Compensation to Be Determined  War on the Rocks

Coverage of the new White House memorandum on combating cybercrime quickly reached the privateer label. CNN called the participants “cyber privateers,” Join War on the Rocks and gain access to content trusted by policymakers, military leaders, and strategic thinkers worldwide. Coverage of the new White House memorandum on combating cybercrime quickly reached the privateer label. CNN called the participants “cyber privateers,” invoking the image of government-sanctioned raiders working the high seas of cyberspace, hauling in digital booty. The reality is considerably less romantic. The administration has tried to create a private offensive cyber program using an exception buried in outdated legislation, and that has shaped how the program must be constructed. For this reason and others, the proposed framework will likely not attract the talent needed to address transnational cybercrime meaningfully.Within a single month, Congress and the White House each proposed leveraging private cyber capability against foreign attacks, each from different directions.

Sen. Mike Lee introduced the Cyber Letters of Marque and Reprisal Act in July, along with a House companion bill from Rep. Tim Burchett. Lee’s pitch is that participants will be “splitting the profits with the federal government” under Congress’s Article I powers to grant “Letters of Marque and Reprisal.” Four weeks later, with Lee’s bill going nowhere, the administration issued a national security presidential memorandum titled “Expanding