Is “Hackback” Official US Cybersecurity Strategy?

The 2026 US "Cyber Strategy for America" document is mostly the same thing we've seen out of the White House for over a decade, but with a more aggressive tone. But one sentence stood out: "We will unleash the private sector by creating incentives to identify and disrupt adversary networks and...

On Hacking Back

Former DoJ attorney John Carlin writes about hackback, which he defines thus: "A hack back is a type of cyber response that incorporates a counterattack designed to proactively engage with, disable, or collect evidence about an attacker. Although hack backs can take on various forms, they are--­b...

Researcher Discovers Mac Malware at Anti-Malware Workshop

In an Oslo Freedom Forum workshop offering advice to free speech advocates on how to better secure their devices against government surveillance, security researcher Jacob Appelbaum uncovered a new strain of malware with backdoor capabilities on the Mac machine of an Angolan activist attending th...