President Donald Trump issued an executive order on March 6 that would require his administration to address cybercrime, fraud and predatory schemes targeting Americans as a way to protect U.S. interests.
“Cybercrime, fraud, and predatory schemes are draining American families of their life savings, stealing the benefits of years of work, and destroying the lives of our youth,” the executive order said. “These activities — which include deploying ransomware and malware, phishing, financial fraud, “sextortion” and other extortion schemes, impersonation, and more — are often coordinated campaigns carried out by Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) aimed at the most vulnerable among us. In many cases, foreign regimes provide willing or tacit state support to cybercrime and predatory schemes, creating a shadow economy fueled by stolen identities, coercion, forced labor, and human trafficking.”
The order directs the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Office of the National Cyber Director, and in coordination with the Assistant to the President and Homeland Security Advisor (APHSA), to conduct a comprehensive review to determine what operational, technical, diplomatic and regulatory tools can be used to combat transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) engaged in cyber-enabled crime and predatory schemes and to establish the National Coordination Center (NCC) to identify the TCOs responsible for scam centers and cybercrime, as well as to propose solutions to prevent, disrupt, investigate, and dismantle their operations.
Additionally, the order directs the departments to form an action plan that will identify and eliminate barriers to dismantling TCOs, for the Secretary of State to engage in international diplomacy to identify and shutter TCOs, and for the Attorney General to prioritize prosecution of TCOs responsible for scam centers and cybercrime, and to recommend how to establish a Victims Restoration Program that would pay victims back using seized or forfeited funds from fraudsters.