My heart goes out to these upstanding financial institutions and their shareholders, and I pray that they don't lose too much money compensating their customers for any losses resulting from these attacks.

How mature of you

This article has an AMAZING amount of weak conclusions and flat-out poor wording. Maybe the author was under an above-average tight deadline? Scaremongering?

The number of times they mention the insidious threat of the seething hacker horde of "Russians" makes me feel positively McCarthy-esque. Absurd.

I have seen grugq write that russia/china both have underground culture that are free from prosecution and free to do their own work, and US arrests their own and then has the other two assault it.

probably a misquote but still something akin to that

With respect, there is reason to believe that McCarthy was not entirely wrong. The evils of communist governments are also beyond dispute, in my view.

[1]. See the section on "Ongoing Debate", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy

[2]. Communist governments have been among the greatest perpetrators of democide, with the PRC at ~76 million citizens murdered, and the USSR at ~62 million citizens murdered in the 20th century. https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM

[3]. This man, in his book "Disinformation," wrote that the USSR had more people involved in covert operations and disinformation campaigns than they had active intelligence agents. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Mihai_Pacepa

> McCarthy was not entirely wrong

So... it's a good thing to model "spy hunting" on the Salem Witch Trials? How is "a communist-spy around every corner" that much different than "report your neighbors for subversive/not-approved ideas, comrade?"

Edit: Just think about pairing up McCarthy-ism and HUAC/SACB[1] with NSA-levels of data gathering today. Would it make the world a better place, or would it have a chilling effect on free speech / free exchange of ideas?

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy#HUAC_and_SACB

Saying that McCarthy was not entirely wrong does not imply that I endorse every aspect of his behavior.

Sure. McCarthy was right that there were Soviet agents in America, and that there was a Soviet threat. But he was not the lone canary in the coal mine, blowing the whistle on Soviet deceptions. He is not known for being the voice of reason when few would believe the reality of the situation. He is known for leading/inspiring witch hunts for Soviet spies, and ruining people's lives based on coincidence and thought-crime. When you say he was "not entirely wrong" without qualification, it is these things that people feel are implicitly referred to by the statement.

Is stealing from thiefs OK?

Sure. And I'm sure the hackers will check that the isThief flag is set on all the Chase accounts that they mess up. As we all know, real people are never affected by this sort of behaviour, only guys in white rooms stroking cats.