Can private companies help the U.S. government fight cybercrime without creating new national security risks of their own? Michael McLaughlin, author of Battlefield Cyber, joins Elisa to examine the new Presidential Memorandum, Expanding Capabilities to Combat Transnational Cyber-Enabled Crime, and what it could mean for the private sector’s role in cyber surveillance and cyber effects operations against transnational criminal organizations. They explore the difficult questions surrounding oversight, attribution, liability, escalation, and the targeting of U.S. persons before turning to the latest national security headlines, from Meta’s multibillion-dollar settlement and the race for critical minerals to tensions in the Middle East and China’s increasingly visible push into AI and advanced robotics.

Michael McLaughlin is an attorney at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, author of Battlefield Cyber, and a former senior counterintelligence advisor to U.S. Cyber Command.

References:

• Presidential Memorandum – Expanding Capabilities to Combat Transnational Cyber-Enabled Crime. August 12, 2026.
• Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
• Executive Order 12333 – United States Intelligence Activities
• National Security Presidential Memorandum 13 (NSPM-13)
• Article 51 of the United Nations Charter
• U.S. Constitution, Article I – Letters of Marque and Reprisal