Should we allow businesses to launch counter-attacks against hackers?

The U.S. government should deputize private companies to strike back against cyberattackers as a way to discourage widespread threats against the nation’s businesses, a former government official says. Many U.S. businesses have limited options for defending their IP networks, and the nation needs to develop more “aggressive” capabilities to discourage cyberattacks, said Juan Zarate, the former deputy national security advisor for counterterrorism during President George W. Bush’s administration. The U.S. government should consider allowing businesses to develop “tailored hack-back capabilities,” Zarate said Monday at a forum on economic and cyberespionage hosted by think tank the Hudson Institute. The U.S. government could issue cyberwarrants, giving a private company license “to protect its system, to go and destroy data that’s been stolen or maybe even something more aggressive,” he added. Zarate, now a senior counselor focused on sanctions at antiterrorism think tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, called for better cybersecurity tools as well, but suggested a new way of thinking about the tools “that not only puts us on the defensive, but also on the offensive.”