Americans are always good guys by definition.

I dunno, one crime was ~200MM the other ~10MMM, so an order of magnitude and a half larger crime. Both are associated with political figures in their respective countries.

And your problem with it is?

Why do people bother typing in accusations in the discussion that they know would be widely overturned in the opposing direction?

That's not a tabloid, you cannot force text on your audience and have their "what about" heard only by their relatives.

Because “What about” is a distraction tactic. It does not overturn anything.

How would you value this exploit, or any exploit?

I understand this is arbitrary code execution with root access. I'm imagining the potential of infecting a high status individual and I think a bad actor would pay millions for such an exploit.

Sure, so how would you arrive at a dollar amount? What would it be?

Apple pays up to $2M for such zero click exploits.

Seriously. Folks in tech like to complain about MBAs, but it's a toss up in my book for "most egregiously overconfident".

Doctors get a good shout as well.

Sent you an email

When I read comments like this I always wonder what the purpose is - what exactly do you want a reader to come away with?

Companies did bad things until they decided it was no longer to their advantage, and stopped?

And if this is the case, what does it have to do with the article, or the blame owed to the actual, literal bad actor (Putin's Russia)?

Well, again as I stated previously - it is hypocritical and these companies and states should be held accountable. If someone feeds the soil for the next dictator to grow and then all of a sudden there is a political crisis involving said dictator aren't you directly responsible for such crisis?

> these companies and states should be held accountable.

Hold the companies accountable... okay sure. I'll write some letters to my elected officials and federal prosecutors about holding Apple and Google accountable. Just one thing... which laws were they breaking? Or do you propose consumer boycotts of both Google and Apple? If your plan is for everybody to give up their smartphones, your plan is DOA.

Hold the states accountable... What does it mean to hold a sovereign state accountable? Are you going to bend the US Government itself over your knee and spank it? I don't think so. What exactly do you mean by holding the state itself accountable?

As long as you hold everyone who voted for Gerhard Schröder too. Not like these policies came out of a vacuum.

This is such a strange take it borders on satire.

Could you elaborate on if you genuinely think this would resolve the issues the DPRK experiences?

Because HN is home to performative contrariness - making an observation for no substantive reason other than to show you "know" something.

Isn't that exactly what the fire department should be doing?

I don't understand the criticism, could you explain why you view this in a negative light?

I think the point they are trying to make is that there will still be fires started by the arsonist, so celebrating a single fire being put out while the arsonist is likely busy trying to start another fire looks bad. Even though, as you point out, the Fire Department isn't going to be making any arrests for arson, that's the Police Department's job.

I'm not sure the analogy applies perfectly anyway, since it was "only" a single "fire" in which "only" 700,000 victims were affected.

Arresting people is a pretty core part of the FBI's job.

This seems needlessly critical. If the fire department puts out a fire, it seems like most people would consider that a good use of resources.

In this case, the comments seem irrationally critical, to the point of being unconstructive.