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Comment by jrexilius | Hacker News Reader

There are a couple good points in the linked Wired article, such as the fact that the Russians, Chinese, Iranians, and North Korea are already escalating attacks on civillian and commercial targets and our restraint isn't being matched.

I fully understand why the US and partner governments won't be able to respond in kind, but there is certainly a lot more that could be done in that domain.

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There are people that are in offensive cyber security in the US government, but realistically they have a bit more moral compass than the other state level actors that try and bring a hospital to its knees for the grand goal of making america look stupid for the nationalistic few who might actually care about that sort of thing. There's a saying we have here about never wrestling a pig in the mud: you will both be dirty but the pig will like it.

> that try and bring a hospital to its knees for the grand goal of making america look stupid for the nationalistic few who might actually care about that sort of thing

That the public believes this is our biggest problem from an international policy perspective... (as far as this topic, that is)

These governments are turning a blind eye, if not quietly supporting such because of the sheer economic and social damage.

I know a local hospital group paid 22mil in ransom on top of a lot of days where stuff barely got done.

Iirc United Health said a recent attack was probably 900 million in total costs to them?

It adds up.

> but realistically they have a bit more moral compass than the other state level actors

yeah, some of those governments have even admitted to spike their own citizens with LSD to see what happens, and COUNTLESS other things. oh....

When the Soviets shoot down airliners it is becouse they are evil. When we do it is an accident. Just cheer the parade...

Having worked in this space a while back, every federal gov digital service experiences nation-state intrusion attacks daily and in the 1,000s on the low end. Our gov digital infrastructure has been born under the weight of constant attack.

Responding in kind has minimal value because it’s not a deterrent.

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