Cyber Privateer

Thursday, September 3, 2026

Dear President Trump - You might want to replace your cybersecurity team.

Listen to Utah Senator Mike Lee and Arizona Congressman David Schweikert (and his bill HR 4988), or read my book DADDY'S LITTLE FELONS for the recipe to victory the current cyberwar. Your current cyber advice can best be described as what Oracle's Larry Ellison calls "malicious obedience." My novel goes into detail on a truly workable approach to shutting down all the bad guys. And my blog (www.cyberprivateer.com) details my decade of advice, chapter and verse. Or read my op-ed piece in TIME MAGAZINE (https://time.com/7317012/can-cyber-privateers-combat-cybercrime/).

Sincerely yours,
Rick Bennett

Wednesday, August 26, 2026

The Pirate Cottage is now fully operational in Brigham City, UT.

Now working on my 5th novel, a tribute to Frank Herbert's short story THE TACTFUL SABOTEUR. Novel #4 (DADDY'S LITTLE VIGILANTE) is in the can and waiting for the right agent (ie; one who has made some movie deals).

Sincerely yours,
Rick Bennett
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Friday, August 14, 2026

President Trump finally approves CYBER PRIVATEERING

Cyber Privateers finally make sense to the hacker plague! THIS IS BIG NEWS.

Back in 2010, I started my www.cyberprivateer.com blog. The logic was that targeting hackers was too complicated for the government. Case in point: The Revolutionary War was substantially won by privateers who were granted Letters of Marque and Reprisal by the US congress.

As of yesterday, at 4:13pm according to CNN, President Trump authorized Cyber Privateers! It's been a long time coming. My two novels (DADDY'S LITTLE FELONS and THE LAST WILL & TESTAMENT OF HARLEY AND HIS DOG) spell out cyber privateering in detail. I even wrote an op-ed piece in TIME MAGAZINE (see My TIME MAGAZINE op-ed piece ) pointing out that Utah Senator Mike Lee and Congressman Schweikert proposed this solution.

Can anyone doubt this was…heh-heh…my baby? After all, I own www.cyberprivateer.com!

Sincerely yours,
Rick Bennett
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Tuesday, June 30, 2026

THE PIRATE COTTAGE is moving one week from today to Brigham City, Utah.

Rita and I are both from small towns (Elko, NV and Sheridan, WY respectively). Brigham City is about the population of our childhood homes, and we're still within an hour of the Salt Lake City airport should we need to go anywhere. Thanks to the Internet, I can conduct guerrilla warfare and continue to write novels the goal of which is to…well…short-circuit people's brains.

It's only a mater of time until my TIME MAGAZINE op-ed piece on finally stomping out cybercrime (see https://lnkd.in/gXkKUKMZ) becomes the only acknowledged solution to today's plague. How long are my old buddies Larry Ellison and Marc Benioff going to put up with the inadequate protection offered by Congress?

Sincerely yours,
Rick Bennett
Hit Man

Sunday, June 21, 2026

Remembering My Old Man

He'd be about to turn 103 this Father's Day. At 97, I still worked NYT crossword puzzles with him, and played brain twisters with him from the Seattle newspapers.

When I was 12 years old, he said, "Rick, you're old enough to play cards for money. If I win, you and your brother Marsh work for me all summer. But if you win, you split the winnings." Since he was one of 23 attorneys in a town of 10,000 people (Sheridan, Wyoming), the law practice was his hobby. He supported the family as a professional gambler.

I agreed to play the Hollywood/Oklahoma version of Gin Rummy for a penny a point (my brother swallowed hard when I took the bet). But I had a pretty good memory for cards and cleaned out dear old dad. That was the best summer me and my brother ever had.

Happy Father's Day, Dad.

Background: Welcome black hats, white hats and cyber swashbucklers

The Revolutionary War was fought, financed, and pretty well WON by bonded privateers, legalized pirates who were given Letters of Marque and Reprisal by the Continental Congress and authorized to attack, capture and monetize British ships. The purpose of this site is to explore the possibility of a modern-day doctrine much like the Monroe Doctrine, by means of which the U.S. government could legally and, more importantly, effectively stop international hackers. Current cybercrime law is not only ineffective, but downright stupid. My Linux servers are attacked hundreds of times a day (mostly from China and former USSR domains), yet if I retaliate against those servers with some creative technology at my disposal (I know some VERY smart guys), then I am in violation of federal law and subject to some onerous penalties. We need more than a new law. We need a new international doctrine. I call it The Morgan Doctrine, named after Morgan Rapier, a fictional character I've created (hey, this is my way of establishing ownership of the concept, should it ever see the light of day).

Why a new international doctrine? Simply, nothing else will work. Introduced on December 2, 1823, the Monroe Doctrine told the world to keep their hands off the Americas. Combine this with current legal thinking on "hot pursuit" of fugitives. In 1917 the US Army went into Mexico after Pancho Villa. More recently, in 1960 Israeli Mossad agents abducted Adolf Eichmann from Argentina. Granted, much of the world regards the Eichmann adventure as a violation of international law. I don't share that opinion and therefore use it as the third leg of my Monroe-Pancho-Aldof platform for The Morgan Doctrine.

If someone comes into your home and attacks or attempts to rob you, you may shoot them dead. You may do so as long as they expire on your property. But what about cyber criminals? They attack you in your home from their homes. Retaliate in kind, and you go to jail. The Morgan Doctrine states simply that if you attack my computers (or my banking assets held in US-based computers), then under a certain set of well-defined conditions, a licensed and bonded "cyber privateer" may attack you in your home country and split the proceeds with the U.S. government. For the sake of argument, let's call it a 50-50 split (heh heh).

Right now, American law enforcement is completely unequipped to deal with the sheer number international cyber hackers. Sure, I could report each of the thousand daily attacks to the FBI, as could the millions of other attackees in the USA. But the volume of such reports would make any meaningful resolution laughable. Not to mention that the FBI has no jurisdiction outside the USA. Yet to make such "enforcement" profitable to recognized (ie, "bonded" "deputized") privateers, as Heath Ledger's Joker said in his last role, "Now you're talking!" You raid our bank accounts, we raid yours. You make money from off-shore child pornography, we're going to loot your bank accounts and, with some REALLY creative black hat operations, you will be taken off the grid worldwide to the extent that you'll not even complete a cell phone conversation for the remainder of your miserable depraved life. Okay, that last part probably won't fly, but you get my drift.

The purpose of this site is to explore the mechanics, legalities and practicality of The Morgan Doctrine.

And I will be the sole arbiter of whether or not your comments get posted. As Mel Brooks wrote, "It's good to be king."