Good morning. Citing a growing threat posed by transnational criminal organizations, President Trump on Wednesday signed a memorandum that enlists the help of the private sector.

“This memorandum expands the fight against TCO-perpetrated cybercrime by incorporating the ingenuity of the private sector,” the communication says.

The memorandum directs the National Coordination Center to create a program to conduct “cyber surveillance operations” and “cyber effects operations” against foreign cyber-enabled transnational criminal organizations under the control and oversight of the federal government.

“By partnering with vetted United States companies subject to the direction and oversight of the Federal Government, we will enhance our ability to counter TCO threats and combat transnational cybercrime, fraud, and other predatory schemes against American citizens,” the memorandum says.

It defines a cyber effects operation as activity conducted in or through IT infrastructure “that results in the manipulation, disruption, denial, degradation, or destruction of information systems, networks, physical or virtual infrastructure controlled by information systems, or information resident thereon.”

There was a time when federal officials were disinclined to endorse the idea of offensive cyber operations, but that has been changing. 

WSJ Pro Cybersecurity reported last November that the White House was going on the cyber offensive. “The Trump administration’s National Cyber Strategy will shift from primarily focusing on online defenses to actively going after nation-state hackers to deter attacks before they happen,” WSJ Pro Cyber’s Angus Loten reported. 

The private sector’s role in cybercrime has been mostly that of victim. Risks notwithstanding, its enlistment in broader cyber operations should expand the government’s arsenal in a dramatic way.

• Before stepping down as Google DeepMind CEO, Demis Hassabis held talks with Trump administration officials and other AI leaders about creating an independent, safety body to set standards and evaluate frontier-class AI models, the Journal reports.

• Chinese censorship is leaking into the U.S. AI models with chatbots occasionally refusing to answer questions about Chinese politics or parroting Communist Party lines, the Journal reports. Researchers blame overcautious safety filters and unbalanced training data—for example, much Chinese-language data on the internet comes from state-scripted sources.

• Apple is negotiating multiyear licensing deals with news publishers to supply content that powers an upgraded, AI-driven Siri launching later this year. Unlike typical AI licensing deals with guaranteed fees, Apple’s proposed model would pay publishers on a variable, per-use basis.

• Cisco’s fourth quarter profit nearly doubled to $3.86 billion, beating estimates, as AI hyperscalers drove $4 billion in infrastructure orders for the quarter amid what CEO Chuck Robbins called the strongest, most consistent demand in 30 years.

• Lenovo, the world’s largest PC maker, said revenue grew 43% in the quarter to $26.94 billion, boosted by its infrastructure business selling AI servers, the WSJ reports.

• Call it the reverse AI effect. SMIC, China’s largest chip foundry, saw net profit more than triple in the second quarter, beating estimates, as foundries prioritizing AI chip production pushed clients to shift legacy and specialty chip orders to China.

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Follow Isabelle Bousquette on LinkedIn, Instagram, X, and TikTok for more behind the scenes on her tech and AI coverage, and lately, her contributions to the WSJ Leadership Institute’s new Executive Resilience series, where she’s profiling America’s top execs about their fitness and wellness habits.

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Steven Rosenbush is chief of the enterprise technology bureau at the WSJ Leadership Institute. He also has a column. You can follow him on LinkedIn.

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