I think you are correct in that we need to pwn baddies. But after reading the article i can infer that was not the intent here. Based on the article, it seems

I think you are correct in that we need to pwn baddies. But after reading the article i can infer that was not the intent here. Based on the article, it seems like the exploits were found because they (exploits) : "caught the attention of cybersecurity experts thanks to their scale, sophistication, and speed. " Notice the word 'scale' in there. This ops seemed to not be targeting a bunch of guys in a mudhut putting together IEDs. This was something scalable. With the potential to ensnare hundreds maybe even thousands of people...