Cyber Privateer

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

My appearance on NBC's TOMORROW with Tom Snyder

Amazing. Sixteen minutes on national television. The interesting part? The previous week we had a church "slave auction" to raise money for charity. I offered to mention you, your family, or your family business, during my upcoming appearance on the TOMORROW show. Toward the end, see how I delivered on that promise, promoting Pick's restaurant in Issaquah, Washington. Yeah, I crack myself up.

By the way, Pick's restaurant paid $50 to the slave auction.

Sincerely yours,
Rick Bennett
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Monday, April 20, 2026

My TODAY SHOW appearance 48 years ago.

I think I came up with a great one-liner when I talked about my Hagoth voice stress analyzer's potential effect on society: "Either there will be an emphasis on telling the truth in your conversations, or there will be a renaissance in letter writing."

I guess I was into guerrilla warfare my whole life?

Sincerely yours,
Rick Bennett
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Saturday, April 18, 2026

My appearance on GOOD MORNING AMERICA 48 years ago

Entrepreneurs need to find what I call a "media anomaly," or a media platform that all the network TV assignment editors use to get unique stories to air. I found one in a now-defunct magazine called THE NEW TIMES. I flew to NYC and dropped in to their offices to personally deliver a press release. A few weeks later, a short blurb appeared in NEW TIMES, after which I started getting calls from all the network television shows. Here's my appearance on GOOD MORNING AMERICA with David Hartman.

If you have a unique story (unlike all the AI-wannabes who say the same old thing), find today's media anomalies (yes, Grasshopper, there are some). Get them to cover your nobody-else-can-do-this story, and you too can become a star.

Caveat: I don't recommend you believe your own PR. I believed mine and sold the company to run for the U.S. Congress that very year. Of course, I'm glad I lost the election. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten into guerrilla warfare.

Here's the YouTube link to my GOOD MORNING AMERICA stint:

Sincerely yours,
Rick Bennett
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Friday, April 17, 2026

In 2017 I played that song with the Murray Symphony that I wrote at 17 for my future wife, Rita.

After the concert, one of my buddies came up to me and said I'd raised the bar too high for the rest of the guys.

Yeah, I'm a hopeless Romantic. We've been married 60 years.

Below is a link to the performance. Enjoy.

Thursday, April 16, 2026

I met this future movie star at a Dominican Republic orphanage

Three decades ago, I arranged to pay off the mortgage of an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. I found out about this from my next door neighbor's father. Missionaries Tyler Engar (pictured Left) and his companion Kirby Heyborne (right) donated a day a week at Casa Lubian, a sad place where people from the DR left their retarded, ill, or deformed children.

In later years, Kirby starred in several movies and numerous television commercials. He's now host of the Emmy-nominated BYUTV show MAKING GOOD. He's also currently serving as a bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I predict you'll see more of this genuinely nice guy.

Sincerely yours,
Rick Bennett
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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."