A new White House program lets private companies launch their own cyberattacks — good for security contractors, risky for ordinary people and small businesses caught in the crossfire.

• Trump signed a memo on August 12, 2026 letting approved US firms hack foreign cybercrime groups instead of just defending against them.
• Washington acted because cybercrime losses keep climbing — from $12.5 billion in 2023 to $21 billion in 2025 — and indictments never reach criminals hiding overseas.
• Approved contractors get legal immunity: if they knock an innocent hospital, bank, or water system offline, victims cannot sue.
• Criminals hide inside the same cloud services and hijacked home devices that normal businesses use, so "targeted" strikes will hit bystanders.
• Expect retaliation aimed at soft targets — banks, hospitals, power grids — rather than at the well-defended firms doing the hacking.

Outlook: Cybercrime is unlikely to shrink, and the most probable near-term result is an escalating private cyber-arms race where security becomes another subscription the little guy pays for.