🇺🇸⚡️ — On August 12, 2026, President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum establishing a federal program that could authorize vetted U.S. private companies to conduct offensive cyber operations against foreign transnational criminal organizations.

This practical change is significant: historically, private cybersecurity companies have largely been limited to protecting their own networks, gathering threat intelligence, and assisting law enforcement.

Under the new system, selected companies could receive instructions from the U.S. government to conduct covert infiltration, surveillance, manipulation, disruption, degradation, or even potential destruction of the computer infrastructure of foreign criminal organizations.

A key distinction is that Congress has not repealed or amended the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), 18 U.S.C. §1030. Unauthorized access to another's computer remains, in general, illegal. The Department of Justice has historically warned private companies against "hacking back" at attackers, as this could violate federal law and unintentionally damage the systems of innocent third parties.

Instead, the memorandum attempts to incorporate participating contractors within the existing legal authorities of the government for investigation, protection, and intelligence gathering: formally, these operations are government operations conducted by private contractors under federal direction, rather than independent corporate countermeasures.

There are significant limitations. The program applies to foreign transnational criminal organizations that use cyber technologies (CE-TCOs), not to ordinary American hackers.

In the memorandum, a CE-TCO is defined as a foreign group that engages in cybercrime against the U.S. government, U.S. citizens, or U.S. interests, and which is not an institutional component of a foreign government and is not wholly controlled by it. Notably, the memorandum establishes a presumption of independence of the group from a foreign government unless there is clear intelligence indicating otherwise.

@IntelSlava

🇪🇺❌🇷🇺 — Recently, a series of interesting activities in the areas of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) took place in the Kaliningrad region.

During these activities, a NATO E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft was operating nearby. Previously, a U.S. Air Force EA-37B "Compass Call II" electronic warfare aircraft, which had been based in Greece to support operations in the Middle East, was redeployed to Powidz in Poland.

Subsequently, the EA-37B aircraft conducted a flight along an oval trajectory between Kaliningrad and the NATO E-3 aircraft for approximately two hours before returning to Greece.

At the same time, a U.S. Army aircraft, ARTEMIS II, operated by a private company, conducted a series of flights along a circular trajectory around Kaliningrad. Flights by the ARTEMIS II and NATO E-3 aircraft in this area are not unusual, but the simultaneous presence of the EA-37B is noteworthy.

"Compass Call" is an electronic warfare aircraft designed to detect, identify, and suppress enemy communication systems and other electromagnetic systems. Its presence near the AWACS aircraft and a specialized reconnaissance aircraft suggests that NATO and U.S. forces had specific ISR or electronic warfare tasks in the Kaliningrad region.

This is particularly significant in light of recent reports in the West that Russia may be preparing for a possible operation against a NATO member. Whether the recent activity is related to this remains unknown, but this unusual combination of capabilities in a particularly sensitive area is certainly noteworthy.

@IntelSlava

🇮🇷❌🇪🇺 — Tehran is considering the possibility of attacking US military facilities in Europe.

— Financial Times

@IntelSlava

🇮🇷❌🇺🇸 — The American television channel CNN, by reposting a satirical message about Iran's claim to California, mocked the statement by the U.S. President regarding the Strait of Hormuz.

@IntelSlava

🇷🇺🇺🇦⚡️ — A massive column of fire rises over Brovary, Kyiv Oblast, following the impact of a ballistic missile.

@IntelSlava

🇷🇺🇺🇦⚡️ — Around 40 Kh-101 cruise missiles were launched by Tu-95MS and Tu-160 strategic bombers and are expected to enter Ukrainian airspace within the next 90 minutes.

@IntelSlava

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️ — Trump announced the start of an "unprecedented economic operation" against Iran.

This will be an economic war and isolation on an unprecedented scale. That's what the American official stated.

@Intelslava