New Delhi, Aug. 14 -- public, specific, and precedent-setting, yet almost entirely without operational detail. The White House released the presidential memorandum on August 12 under the title "Expanding Capabilities to Combat Transnational Cyber-Enabled Crime." What it establishes is the first formal program in American peacetime history authorizing private companies to conduct offensive cyberattacks on behalf of the federal government.

The document, signed by President Trump and posted to the White House presidential actions page, creates two categories of authorized operations. "Cyber Surveillance Operations" covers covert information gathering from foreign computer systems designed to remain undetected. "Cyber Effects Operations" aut...