The Trump administration has, for the first time, deployed offensive cyber capabilities against foreign scam centres, senior officials confirmed at a White House roundtable on cybercrime on Wednesday, 22 October 2026. The announcement came as Homeland Security disclosed that Americans aged over 60 lost $7.7 billion to cybercrime in 2025 alone — wiping out retirement savings across the country.

The Offensive Cyber Mandate

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told President Donald Trump at the roundtable: 'With the executive order that you signed, for the first time ever, we are using offensive cyber capabilities to dismantle, disrupt, and disable these foreign scam centres. That has never been done before.' Miller went further, telling Trump: 'So you have effectively declared cyber warfare against the cyber criminals, and that is saving the pensions, the life savings, the retirement accounts, the earnings of countless American citizens.'

Trump indicated his August national security memorandum had unlocked private sector 'tools and resources' to 'undertake offensive and defensive actions to stop the hackers'. Officials declined to specify which scam centres had been targeted or in which countries.

Military and Intelligence Resources Deployed

Secretary Pete Hegseth said his department had brought 'CyberCom and NSA, and the exquisite capabilities' to the effort. 'We're feeding our deep intelligence and tracking data on overseas cyber networks directly to the National Coordination Center and Homeland Security Task Force,' he said. Hegseth also noted 'a very clear connection between transnational cyber syndicates and enemy militaries and how they fund themselves,' though he did not name any specific country.

Miller linked the cybercrime campaign to President Trump's broader trade agenda, warning of 'entire foreign economies that are propped up on stealing from American seniors.' 'America is not a pile of treasure for other countries and other people and other scammers all around the world to loot for themselves,' he said.

The Scale of Elder Financial Fraud

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin put a stark figure to the human toll. 'When you get into what is going on, the elderly population, over 60, as just in 2025 through cybercrimes, lost 7.7 billion in their income. That's retirements that are completely wiped away,' he said. Officials highlighted the so-called 'grandparent scam' as one of the most prevalent tactics — fraudsters call elderly victims claiming a family member has been arrested and demand immediate wire transfers, with funds routed to overseas scam centres.

Trump said the administration was focused on protecting seniors, calling them 'almost more than anybody' the primary victims of such schemes. He advised those targeted to 'seek out help from trusted family members.'

Child Exploitation Crackdown

The roundtable also addressed online child exploitation. Mullin said that under the Secret Service alone, authorities had recovered 14,600 child abuse videos and over 35,600 images. He highlighted the Homeland Security Investigations campaign 'Know to Protect', which he described as educating families on guarding against digital extortion.

President Trump said the administration was 'aggressively confronting the sexual extortion rackets that have wrecked the lives of too many young people, and in some cases even tragically led victims to take their own lives.' He credited First Lady Melania Trump, who, he said, 'led a successful bipartisan effort to pass the Take It Down Act.' Attorney General Todd Blanche added: 'We're also meeting the serious threat of sextortion head-on.'

What Comes Next

Officials offered no timeline for the offensive cyber campaign or specifics on its targets, leaving its full scope unclear. The administration's framing — tying scam networks to hostile foreign militaries — signals a potential escalation beyond law enforcement into national security doctrine. As Hegseth put it: 'By taking on these cyber criminals on offence and defence, we watch out for our warriors, we watch out for American citizens, and we secure the homeland.' The question of international attribution and diplomatic fallout remains unanswered.