{"id":2259,"date":"2026-04-01T17:04:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T17:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.ibvl.in\/index.php\/2026\/04\/01\/is-hackback-official-us-cybersecurity-strategy\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T17:04:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T17:04:31","slug":"is-hackback-official-us-cybersecurity-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.ibvl.in\/index.php\/2026\/04\/01\/is-hackback-official-us-cybersecurity-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Is \u201cHackback\u201d Official US Cybersecurity Strategy?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The 2026 US \u201cCyber Strategy for America<\/a>\u201d document is mostly the same thing we\u2019ve seen out of the White House for over a decade, but with a more aggressive tone.<\/p>\n

But one sentence stood out: \u201cWe will unleash the private sector by creating incentives to identify and disrupt adversary networks and scale our national capabilities.\u201d This sounds like a call for hackback: giving private companies permission to conduct offensive cyber operations.<\/p>\n

The Economist<\/i> noticed<\/a> (alternate link<\/a>) this, too.<\/p>\n

I think this is an incredibly dumb idea<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

In warfare, the notion of counterattack is extremely powerful. Going after the enemy\u00ad\u2014its positions, its supply lines, its factories, its infrastructure\u2014\u00adis an age-old military tactic. But in peacetime, we call it revenge, and consider it dangerous. Anyone accused of a crime deserves a fair trial. The accused has the right to defend himself, to face his accuser, to an attorney, and to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.<\/p>\n

Both vigilante counterattacks, and preemptive attacks, fly in the face of these rights. They punish people before who haven\u2019t been found guilty. It\u2019s the same whether it\u2019s an angry lynch mob stringing up a suspect, the MPAA disabling the computer of someone it believes made an illegal copy of a movie, or a corporate security officer launching a denial-of-service attack against someone he believes is targeting his company over the net.<\/p>\n

In all of these cases, the attacker could be wrong. This has been true for lynch mobs, and on the internet it\u2019s even harder to know who\u2019s attacking you. Just because my computer looks like the source of an attack doesn\u2019t mean that it is. And even if it is, it might be a zombie controlled by yet another computer; I might be a victim, too. The goal of a government\u2019s legal system is justice; the goal of a vigilante is expediency.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We don\u2019t issue letters of marque on the high seas anymore; we shouldn\u2019t do it in cyberspace.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2026 US \u201cCyber Strategy for America\u201d document is mostly the same thing we\u2019ve seen out of the White House for over a decade, but with a more aggressive tone. 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