Now that we are done with the obligatory take on Powell today, we can turn to the more interesting stuff that Academy wrote about in July – Licensing Privateers to Combat Crypto Theft.

We want to highlight this, because the Cybercrime Marque and Reprisal Authorization Act to Combat Foreign Scam Syndicates was introduced to Congress.

Quite a long name for the Act (might need something catchier), but you can find the entire text here.

It launches right into the concept:

• “Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution grants the Congress the power to grant letters of marque and reprisal to punish, deter, and prevent the acts of aggression and depredations and other acts of war committed by scam centers.”

The intro provided above highlights the cost of cyber theft to Americans which is the root problem that needs to be addressed.

The intro itself does a good job of touching on our theme of Nation State-Sponsored organizations, though it uses “Criminal syndicates backed by foreign governments.”

The text of the act itself avoids some of those statements and uses “scams” most frequently. I’m not sure why they chose that language specifically, but will try to find out.

The act does mention the concept of Security Bonds that “is sufficient to ensure that the letter be executed according to the terms and conditions thereof.” This fits well with our point that while letters of marque are a potentially useful tool, those who are granted the letters need to be monitored and punished if they violate their mandate.

An interesting concept that we are digging deeper into and have some level of involvement within various organizations.

Hopefully, a good way to spend some time ahead of Powell’s speech as we expect to see more “out of the box” thinking from this administration in the crypto and cyber space!

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