Congressman proposes bringing back letters of marque for cyber privateers

It’s been more than 200 years since the United States issued a letter of marque allowing privateers to attack the vessels of foreign nations, but those letters may return to empower cyber operators if a bill introduced in Congress actually manages to pass. 

Arizona Republican David Schweikert introduced the Scam Farms Marque and Reprisal Authorization Act of 2025 in the House of Representatives last week. If signed into law, it would give the US President a lot of leeway in issuing letters of marque to create an armada of internet privateers. 

Letters of marque were popular in the age of sail, with many eventual pirates getting their starts as privateers working for the US, UK, France, Spain, and other naval powers of the era. The US last issued letters of marque during the war of 1812, giving privateers the right to wage war against British vessels. 

According to Schweikert’s office’s statement on the bill published today, Congress still has the authority to allow for the issues of letters of marque and reprisal, and that’s exactly what he thinks we should do to tackle the cyberthreats posed by foreign countries. 

“Our current tools are failing to keep pace,” Schweikert said. “This legislation allows us to effectively engage these criminals and bring accountability and restitution to the digital battlefield by leveraging the same constitutional mechanism that once helped secure our nation’s maritime interests.”

Schweikert called attention to growing cybercrime losses, like the $16.6 billion US citizens lost to scams last year, the highest in 25 years of record keeping, as evidence that our current ideas haven’t solved the problem. 

The text of the bill gives the President the authority to issue letters of marque and reprisal against anyone they determine “is a member of a criminal enterprise or any conspirator associated with an enterprise involved in cybercrime who is responsible for an act of aggression against the United States.” 

That includes foreign governments. 

The bill doesn’t limit the number of cyber privateers the President could commission, either, with the size of such a force only restricted to what they judge is required “to employ all means reasonably necessary to seize outside the geographic boundaries of the United States and its territories the person and property of any individual or foreign government” involved in hostile cyber activities. 

As was the case with ocean-going privateers, Trump’s cyber warriors are being authorized to “recover stolen assets, prevent future attacks, and defend critical infrastructure,” Schweikert’s office said. Age of Sail privateers were often allowed to keep their seized assets, though that isn’t mentioned in the bill.

Either way, Schweikert said, “Americans deserve protection from digital predators who exploit outdated laws and hide in foreign jurisdictions.” 

Passage of the bill is far from a sure thing, of course. Foreign governments facing a force of government-sanctioned American hackers might not greet the matter too kindly, either. 

Schweikert’s office told us that, having only introduced the bill last week, the Congressman hasn’t had time to lobby for it with other elected officials, nor has Schweikert’s team heard whether the President would support the measure. 

The Congressman’s communications director did tell us that the idea isn’t that novel, with organizations paying similar bounties to hackers “to unwind threats” instead of “paying or bending to the hackers,” Mitchell Shedd told The Register in an email. 

Beyond the need to counter cyber threats, Shedd said that cybercrime has also become a human rights issue.

“In Myanmar and China, people are being trafficked and abused, forced into these roles as scammers,” Shedd said. “The State Department has voiced their concerns, but these countries are not responding.” 

Giving marque to US ethical hackers, Shedd added, would help the US protect not only US citizens, but those being abused abroad, too. Whether Age of Sail tactics are worth pursuing in the Age of Cyber is now up to Congress to decide. ®

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