The United States is planning to create a new government department that will deal with matters of digital policy and cybersecurity. 

On Monday, Secretary of State Tony Blinken announced plans for the State Department to launch a Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, in an email to the department’s workforce. 

In the email, Blinken reportedly stated: “This structure will provide us with greater leadership and accountability to drive the diplomatic agenda with the interagency and abroad and build on the extraordinary work that is already taking place across the Department.”

In addition to the bureau, the Biden administration reportedly plans to create the new position of cyber envoy that will be focused on critical and emerging technology.

In a briefing held yesterday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said: “Pending consultations with Congress, we plan to establish a Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, led by a Senate-confirmed ambassador-at-large, which will focus on three key areas: international cyberspace security, international digital policy, and digital freedom.”

Price added that the creation of the bureau will “integrate the core security, economic, and values components” of the Biden administration’s cyber agenda. 

“We also plan to establish a new special envoy for critical and emerging technology to lead the immediate technology diplomacy agenda with our allies, partners, and across the range of multilateral fora,” said Price.

A journalist at the briefing asked Price, “Didn’t the previous administration try to set up the same kind of thing, and you guys put the kibosh on it?”

Price replied: “So what the previous administration set up – what they proposed, I should say – was to create a bureau that would be responsible for the national security aspects of cyberspace security and security-related aspects of emerging technology. 

“The Cyberspace Security and Emerging Technology Bureau would have been placed under the undersecretary for arms control and international security. So, this is a very different structure.”

The journalist responded that “it sounds almost exactly the same to me, except that instead of reporting to the undersecretary this one is going to report to the deputy secretary.”

A formal announcement regarding the creation of the bureau and the envoy role is expected to be made on Wednesday by Secretary Blinken.

An international law enforcement action has led to the arrest of 150 individuals worldwide on suspicion of buying or selling illicit goods on the dark web. 

Operation Dark HunTor involved the combined effort of police forces in nine different countries who carried out a series of separate but complementary actions, coordinated by Europol and Eurojust. 

Following actions in Australia, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, 234kg of drugs and 45 firearms were seized along with more than $31m in cash and virtual currencies. 

Included in the drug haul were 152.1kg of amphetamine, 21.6kg of cocaine, 26.9kg of opioids, 32.5kg of MDMA, in addition to more than 200,000 ecstasy, fentanyl, oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methamphetamine pills, and counterfeit medicine.

The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) said that it considers the 150 alleged vendors and buyers arrested in the operation to be “High-Value Targets” who it suspects engaged in tens of thousands of illegal goods sales. 

The bulk of the arrests were carried out in the United States (65), Germany (47), and the United Kingdom (24). 

In a statement released today, the United States Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs said that through Operation Dark HunTor, darknet vendor accounts had been identified and attributed to real individuals selling illicit goods on active marketplaces, as well as inactive darknet marketplaces such as Dream, WallStreet, White House, DeepSea, and DarkMarket.

“Operation Dark HunTor stems from the takedown earlier this year of DarkMarket, the world’s then-largest illegal marketplace on the dark web,” said Europol.

“At the time, German authorities arrested the marketplace’s alleged operator and seized the criminal infrastructure, providing investigators across the world with a trove of evidence.”

Europol said that ever since DarkMarket’s takedown, its European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) had been “compiling intelligence packages to identify the key targets.”

Prior to, but in support of, Operation Dark HunTor, authorities in Italy shut down the DeepSea and Berlusconi dark web marketplaces, which featured over 40,000 advertisements for illegal goods. Four alleged administrators were arrested, and €3.6m in crypto-currencies were seized in coordinated Italian–US operations.