Chris Giancarlo wants to revive letters of marque to fight the Lazarus Group

Chris Giancarlo has an idea for dealing with North Korea’s most prolific hackers. It involves a clause in the US Constitution that has mostly gathered dust since the early 1800s. The former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) wants to modernize letters of marque and reprisal. That would let private firms legally hack back against state-sponsored cybercriminals like the Lazarus Group. It is a privateer playbook, updated for an era where the loot sits in hot wallets instead of cargo holds. From the high seas to the blockchain The pitch first surfaced on February 26, 2025, in an op-ed Giancarlo co-wrote with Christopher Perkins, head of Franklin Crypto. Their timing was not subtle. The piece pointed to the Lazarus Group’s theft of approximately $1.4 to $1.5 billion from crypto exchange Bybit. Giancarlo and Perkins argued the US already has a legal tool for this kind of problem. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to grant letters of marque and reprisal. Historically, those documents gave private actors official permission to go after a nation’s enemies. Put simply, the government would deputize the private sector. Instead of waitin...