The West’s Secret Weapon: Can We Out-Hack the Cyber Privateers?

Cyber privateers are increasingly targeting US critical infrastructure, posing severe risks to national security and operational safety.

In the first half of 2026, North Korea-linked groups logged more documented advanced persistent threat incidents than China and Russia combined. That is not a crime wave. It is statecraft.

This episode examines the rise of cyber privateers: hacker groups that operate for profit, under contract, or with a state’s tacit protection—and why China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran have refined the model.
We look at Lazarus and the $1.5 billion Bybit heist, Russia’s sanctuary-and-tasking system, China’s “Premier Pass-as-a-Service” access-sharing, and the older pattern behind it: criminal networks used for deniable state work.

Then the historical parallel—letters of marque, mercenaries, Blackwater, Wagner—and why the 1856 Declaration of Paris abolished privateering.

Finally: the Western response. The August 2026 U.S. presidential memorandum authorizing vetted companies to act against foreign cyber-enabled criminal groups. Senator Mike Lee’s Cyber Letters of Marque bill. UK “deputisation” proposals. Singapore’s little-known statutory certificate.

Is the pendulum swinging back—or are these only tightly supervised experiments?

The instrument exists. The open question is how far the West will go.

Chapters:


Subscribe for weekly security breakdowns, and comment below on which emerging cyber trends you want us to cover next.

00:00 The Modern Axis Cyber Privateers
10:34 The Historical Privateers
16:23 Western Response
21:56 Is the Pendulum Swinging Back?