Why the White House's Hack-Back Memo Leaves North Korea Off the List

The guests argue that the White House’s new hack-back memo is a real but limited step toward letting vetted private actors help fight cybercrime. The memo, issued in August, authorizes government contractors to pursue certain offensive actions, but only after sign-off from the Department of Justice and Treasury, and only under rules being written by federal agencies. One guest says this follows the direction he and Chris Perkins pushed for after presenting the crypto privateering idea to the White House and later to Treasury, law enforcement, Congress, and the Senate. He calls it an incremental move that still points toward using private-sector innovation to match faster attackers.

A second guest stresses that the program deliberately stops short of targeting state actors such as North Korea’s Lazarus Group. The White House appears to have drawn a line around criminal enterprises like cartels, ransomware gangs, and pig-butchering networks, because going after a nation-state could raise war and international-law issues. The guests argue that this narrow approach is intentional and prudent: the administration wants to start with private criminal networks that steal enormous sums, then possibly expand later if the first wave works. They also note the scale mismatch, saying North Korea has stolen billions, but transnational criminal organizations steal hundreds of billions a year.