This is the new normal. The US government does this, the French do this, the Chinese do this, Syria does this, North Korea does this... etc.
As with other new frontiers of geopolitical leverage there will be a painful learning and a growing period for the internet. There's so many ways it could turn out and I fluctuate between being hopeful and pessimistic and what I will temporarily think is 'realistic'.
I must have missed alot, what are other instances of attacks like this? We are not talking about espionage or theft, the Sony attack was plain malice. The only prior examples I can think of are private activists (eg Anonomous) or major tactical targets (eg nuclear centrifuges).
We differ in that I would group this action together with espionage and sabotage, but if you are looking for other examples of nation state sponsored 'malice' attacks the Syrian Electronic Army's ("state-supported") attack of Ebay, Paypal, Ferrari, Walmart, media organizations, security companies, government twitter accounts, and Microsoft (and others) are examples of attacks that are meant to hurt reputation and cause chaos more than they were about data or finance.
As with other new frontiers of geopolitical leverage there will be a painful learning and a growing period for the internet. There's so many ways it could turn out and I fluctuate between being hopeful and pessimistic and what I will temporarily think is 'realistic'.