In the name of “combating transnational cyber-enabled crime,” the White House issued two documents on August 12: a fact sheet and a presidential memorandum.
According to ChatGPT: “So, in one sentence: the memo creates a government-controlled mechanism for vetted private cybersecurity/technology firms to move from defending against foreign cybercriminals to actively surveilling, disrupting and potentially destroying their digital infrastructure.”
Note that its release was timed for Hegseth’s launch of “A3C” ("Americas Counter Cartel Coalition") at his big hemispheric security confab in Panama the same day, the second full meeting of his “Shield of the Americas” initiative, with 17 countries represented.
Investigative journalists in Brazil are ringing alarm bells on how this can be used to escalate interference in Brazil’s October elections, since Rubio put through the designation of Brazil’s organized crime syndicates, PCC and CV, as “international terrorist organizations” about two months ago.
