Politics & Government · The Record
White House memo directs creation of private cyber operations program with $1 million bond
The memorandum directs a center to create a program for cyber operations and cites underused private capabilities, while a March order already directed use of commercial cyber support.
The White House said in an August 2026 memorandum that the National Coordination Center must create a program to authorize participating companies to conduct cyber surveillance operations and cyber effects operations against foreign cyber-enabled transnational criminal organizations. The memorandum said the operations would remain under federal control and oversight.
The memorandum said U.S. companies' innovative capabilities had historically been underused in efforts to identify and disrupt criminal networks in cyberspace.
It also said U.S. policy is to partner with vetted United States companies subject to federal direction and oversight. The operative clause, however, directs the center to authorize participating companies, a term defined in section 4(f); the published excerpt does not include that definition, so this article does not treat the two labels as identical.
Executive Order 14390 directs an action plan rather than authorizing companies to conduct operations. Executive Order 14390 said the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security, supported by the Secretary of War, should describe how commercial capabilities would be used as appropriate to enhance attribution, tracking and disruption.
The August memorandum adds a program directive to that earlier planning step. The memorandum said any resulting operational action would be conducted on behalf of and under the supervision of the federal government.
The memorandum ties the center to Executive Order 14159. It said the center was established pursuant to section 6(d) of that order. The published excerpt of Executive Order 14159 contains a subsection marked (d) directing an operational command center to coordinate HSTFs, but the excerpt does not show the section number.
The Executive Order 14159 excerpt lists objectives involving criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, cross-border human smuggling and trafficking, and immigration law enforcement. The excerpt does not mention cyber surveillance or cyber effects operations.
The memorandum authorized the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to mandate that participating companies maintain a bond or escrow of at least $1 million, to be forfeited if a company enters non-compliance.
Analysis: The record shows an escalation from a March planning directive to an August authorization program. The memorandum's underutilization claim is its own historical characterization, while the March order shows this administration had already directed agencies to plan use of private-sector cyber capabilities.