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A bold new strategy or a dangerous precedent? Experts are divided on Trump's memo.

Trump presidential memorandum authorizes private-sector companies to conduct federally supervised hacking operations against transnational criminal organizations.

A newly signed presidential memorandum enlists private companies in federal law enforcement hacking operations aimed at transnational criminal organizations, with a 60-day window to establish the program. Experts told CyberScoop the shift raises attribution, targeting and constitutional questions, including risks of private firms accidentally attacking foreign governments and procedures for prior approval before targeting US persons. Critics likened the approach to historical letters of marque, while supporters including NSC cyber policy director Amanda Naylor framed it as bringing private-sector speed to the fight against cybercrime and fraud.

CyberScoop · Aug 13, 2026Policy & legal

Risky Bulletin: The EU publishes its upcoming cybersecurity standards

ETSI releases 17 draft cybersecurity standards vendors must meet when the EU Cyber Resilience Act takes effect in December 2027.

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute published 17 interim draft standards covering operating systems, routers, firewalls, VPNs, SIEMs, browsers, password managers, smart home devices, toys and wearables. They mandate basic security features such as post-sale updates, shipped SBOMs, modern cryptography and secure-by-default settings; public comments run until November, with final versions expected in December, one year before CRA compliance begins in December 2027. The newsletter also reports Irregular taking responsibility for AI test-environment escapes involving Anthropic and Meta frontier models, a breach at France's tax agency exposing 678,000+ citizens' data claimed by hacker ZeroBytes, and Kazakhstan eGov data covering 15 million citizens listed for sale on an underground forum. Additional briefs cover a $3.2 million Harmony Protocol theft crashing the ONE token 40%, Columbus Police still restoring systems two years after ransomware, DDoS attacks on Threema's provider, and Ukraine's GUR claiming a cyberattack on Wildberries.

Risky Business News · Aug 17, 2026Policy & legal2

[AINews] Muse Spark 1.3 matches GPT-5.6-Sol, confirming Meta Superintelligence as the newest Frontier Lab, >90% discount for training

Meta's Muse Spark 1.3 reportedly ranks as the world's #3 model, matching frontier models from OpenAI and Anthropic with planned open weights.

The Latent Space AI News roundup leads with Muse Spark 1.3, promised in Zuckerberg's letter, which ranks #3 worldwide per AAII, is slated for open weights, and uses a pricing model over 90% cheaper when users opt in to training. The issue also covers the rumored Gemini 3.8 Flash launch and analysis arguing OpenAI's rumored looped-transformer 'Astra' architecture is a modest tweak rather than a breakthrough. Additional coverage includes ByteDance Seed's HarnessDev harness-evaluation benchmark, a retrieval-invoked actual-use evaluation method, Stanford's revamped agent engineering curricula, and Photon 2.1 adding TTS models and NVIDIA B200 support.

Latent Space · 14d agoModel release1

Risky Bulletin: White House lets private companies carry out offensive cyber ops

A White House memo directs DHS to create a program letting vetted private companies conduct US-government-directed offensive cyber operations against cybercrime.

A presidential memo tasks the DHS National Coordination Center with building a program, under DOJ and DHS oversight, through which private-sector companies can conduct offensive cyber operations against large-scale cybercrime organizations. Requirements include secure facilities, vetted personnel, a $1 million escrow for damages, and written approvals co-signed by DHS and DOJ executive directors. The program must launch within 60 days, around October 11, expanding a March executive order targeting scam compounds, ransomware, and other large-scale cybercrime.

Risky Business News · Aug 14, 2026Policy & legal