US push to counter hackers draws industry deeper into offensive cyber debate The White House is expanding the market for offensive cyber capabilities — and drawing more of the private sector into that ecosystem — even as policy boundaries around their use remain unclear. The U.S. government has an offensive cyber wish list, and the private sector is already bidding. Many federal contractors back the effort, though they still have deeper questions about semantics and where offense ends and defense begins. Terms like “disruption,” “cyber effects” and “defensive operations” were flung around in discussions at the RSAC Conference in San Francisco last month, one of the largest cybersecurity gatherings in the world. In discussions during and after the conference, Nextgov/FCW sought to learn how industry players perceive the vision under President Donald Trump to punch back harder against cyber adversaries, and how those industry leaders might contribute to the cause. For the past year, industry executives and U.S. officials in closed-door meetings have weighed the concept of enlisting private sector cyber titans to hack for the government, inspired by the centuries-old practice of letters of marque and reprisal that made waves in the old days of naval warfare. But last month, National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross appeared to pour cold water on the concept. He told audience members at an event that there’s “an enormous amount of capability on the private sector side,” but that he’s “not talking about private sector, industry or companies engaged in a cyber offensive campaign.” Cairncross said he wants to use the “ability of our private sector … to inform and share information so that the [U.S. government] can respond” either defensively or in a more agile way to enemy hackers. His remarks came after the release of Trump’s national cyber strategy, whose first pillar