The Trump administration's new initiative to engage private U.S. cybersecurity companies in offensive operations against cybercriminal groups aims to expand U.S. capabilities, but it leaves key questions unanswered and raises the risk of companies conducting attacks that unintentionally trigger nation-state retaliation. On Aug. 12, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum directing federal law enforcement agencies to create a program enabling them to conduct offensive cyber operations against cybercriminal groups with assistance from private U.S. firms. Participating companies would be able to target cybercriminal groups to gather intelligence and, with U.S. government approval, directly launch or secondarily support cyberattacks.