Aug 12 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump signed a memo on Wednesday that the White House said was aimed at empowering federal law enforcement to use cyber tools against transnational criminal organizations that operate in foreign jurisdictions to attack Americans.
Trump signed the national security presidential memorandum directing his administration to “leverage the capability and innovation of the private sector to help conduct these cyber operations under the direction, control, and authority of the U.S. Government,” the White House said.
The White House, in a fact sheet about the memo, cited ransomware attacks, financial frauds and other crimes run by foreign-based organized criminal organizations.
The memo creates a framework that encourages private sector companies to enter into agreements with other private entities, as well as federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial agencies to gather threat information on transnational criminal organizations and propose cyber operations to address those threats, the White House added.
(Reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones and Ismail Shakil; Editing by Christian Martinez and Michelle Nichols )
