Administration Moves to Enlist Private Firms in Offensive Cyber Operations

Reporting from Bloomberg in December 2025 revealed the Trump administration is preparing to involve private companies in offensive cyberattacks against foreign hackers and state-sponsored adversaries, an area historically handled exclusively by military and intelligence agencies such as Cyber Command. The approach was formalized in a national cyber strategy giving private-sector firms an expanded role against sophisticated criminal and nation-state threats, backed in part by a $1 billion allocation for offensive cyber operations tucked into the administration's tax and spending law.

No existing federal legal framework authorizes private companies to conduct offensive cyber operations, and laws like the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act broadly criminalize the same conduct the strategy envisions. Legal experts warn that involving contractors could blur accountability, expose companies to prosecution or retaliation from hostile states, and reduce the oversight that traditionally applies to government-run cyber operations.

Supporters argue private-sector expertise is necessary given the scale of hostile hacking activity, while critics see the shift as another example of core government functions being outsourced under the banner of speed and flexibility, with unclear long-term accountability.