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That's an easy one, because spying on France industrial or state secrets by foreign powers happens all the time. For example: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news

That's an easy one, because spying on France industrial or state secrets by foreign powers happens all the time. For example: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/09/27/business/hackers-tried-steal-airbus-secrets-via-contractors-china-link-suspected-afp/ https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/09/27/business/hacker... So, to answer your question: they do not try to extradite the foreign operators responsible to the leaks, and they do everything to strengthen their IT security. Also, they possibly build or reinforce their cyber-defense team to cyber-counter or cyber-retaliate. This kind of response is just how it happens when abiding to the international law. Still, they are far from doing nothing, and they are efficient.

umvi 6y ago
> So, to answer your question: they do not try to extradite the foreign operators responsible to the leaks Do you think that would change if they had more power? It's like criticizing the response of a super corporation like Microsoft and saying a smaller company like GitLab handles the same scenario better. Probably true, but also if you scaled GitLab to the size and power of Microsoft, maybe they would've had a different response.
- henearkr 6y ago
  I honestly don't know. It really is very difficult to resist the temptation to misuse power, when a lot of it is concentrated in one's hands. On the other hand, let's analyse: - on the "means" side: France certainly has a lot of military power. It does drone-killing of terrorist heads in African Sahel. It launches successful intelligence operations abroad. It also succeeds to counter foreign agents on its own soil (ref the identification in 2018 of a GRU cell in France). It has a very solid cyber-defense. Also, between strengthening the IT, cyber-army, and intelligence services, and just extraditing journalists after-the-fact (or, imagine, abduct them, drone-kill them, etc), which is most resource-intensive? As an engineer, you know that the part where you develop your own system to be more robust and more capable is harder than just band-aid retaliation around past mistakes. Guess what, US is doing both, so it's seat-belt and airbag at the same time. Very great, France is doing only seat-belt. - on the "results" side: France tries (currently) to preserve its image, to appear as "good" (not judging if that's true), by playing by the rules internationally, fighting great causes, etc. Whereas US soft power took a huge tall in its (indirect) handling of Assange case. It is now seen as more "evil" as before. More people, especially a lot of intelligent people, are despising US more. So, supposing the overflow of power hasn't busted the brains out of the government, they should be weighting means and results, and decide in consequence.
  - fsloth 6y ago
    "More people, especially a lot of intelligent people, are despising US more." If they are more offended by treatment of Assange than innocents kept in Guantanamo Bay 'camp' without a trial and summary drone executions with huge collateral death toll I'm not sure I would call them that intelligent. I mean really, US government has a huge assassination list whose targets are taken down by bomb raids killing and maiming civilians and one hacker being manhandled pushes you over the edge? Those are some sick values.
    - henearkr 6y ago
      They are on your side. The supporters of Assange are guaranteed to be also revolted by Guantanamo Camp and drone executions. Assange's supporters like him precisely because, among other things, he (and Wikileaks) is a champion of the cause fighting against the wrongdoings of US army and US extrajudicial penitentiary system: - Guantanamo Files https://wikileaks.org/gitmo/ https://wikileaks.org/gitmo/ - Collateral Murder https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org/ https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org/ These are actually precisely the reason why US government is extraditing Assange.

umvi 6y ago

> So, to answer your question: they do not try to extradite the foreign operators responsible to the leaks Do you think that would change if they had more power? It's like criticizing the response of a super corporation like Microsoft and saying a smaller company like GitLab handles the same scenario better. Probably true, but also if you scaled GitLab to the size and power of Microsoft, maybe they would've had a different response.

henearkr 6y ago
I honestly don't know. It really is very difficult to resist the temptation to misuse power, when a lot of it is concentrated in one's hands. On the other hand, let's analyse: - on the "means" side: France certainly has a lot of military power. It does drone-killing of terrorist heads in African Sahel. It launches successful intelligence operations abroad. It also succeeds to counter foreign agents on its own soil (ref the identification in 2018 of a GRU cell in France). It has a very solid cyber-defense. Also, between strengthening the IT, cyber-army, and intelligence services, and just extraditing journalists after-the-fact (or, imagine, abduct them, drone-kill them, etc), which is most resource-intensive? As an engineer, you know that the part where you develop your own system to be more robust and more capable is harder than just band-aid retaliation around past mistakes. Guess what, US is doing both, so it's seat-belt and airbag at the same time. Very great, France is doing only seat-belt. - on the "results" side: France tries (currently) to preserve its image, to appear as "good" (not judging if that's true), by playing by the rules internationally, fighting great causes, etc. Whereas US soft power took a huge tall in its (indirect) handling of Assange case. It is now seen as more "evil" as before. More people, especially a lot of intelligent people, are despising US more. So, supposing the overflow of power hasn't busted the brains out of the government, they should be weighting means and results, and decide in consequence.
- fsloth 6y ago
  "More people, especially a lot of intelligent people, are despising US more." If they are more offended by treatment of Assange than innocents kept in Guantanamo Bay 'camp' without a trial and summary drone executions with huge collateral death toll I'm not sure I would call them that intelligent. I mean really, US government has a huge assassination list whose targets are taken down by bomb raids killing and maiming civilians and one hacker being manhandled pushes you over the edge? Those are some sick values.
  - henearkr 6y ago
    They are on your side. The supporters of Assange are guaranteed to be also revolted by Guantanamo Camp and drone executions. Assange's supporters like him precisely because, among other things, he (and Wikileaks) is a champion of the cause fighting against the wrongdoings of US army and US extrajudicial penitentiary system: - Guantanamo Files https://wikileaks.org/gitmo/ https://wikileaks.org/gitmo/ - Collateral Murder https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org/ https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org/ These are actually precisely the reason why US government is extraditing Assange.