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I read it as more of a “they’ve ruined it for the rest of us” whinge.

• ketzo 5y ago
  It's absolutely that, yeah. These guys were making fat stacks licensing out their Ransomware-as-a-Service package; now, since a customer flew too close to the sun/U.S. government, they're fucked. Tragedy of the commons? Sort of? Not really?
• meowface 5y ago
  Exactly. It's maybe a tiny bit like SWATing before the police shot and killed one of the victims. Before, SWATers rationalized it as a prank, generally. (Of course, in reality it always was a potentially murderous prank, as most people recognized.) Once someone was killed and the SWATer was arrested and sentenced to life in prison, they got a wake-up call to the magnitude and potential consequences of their actions. Unfortunately, in this case the ransomers will probably rarely ever face any repercussions (as long as they never travel internationally), since they live under a government that shields and permits their activities as long as the victims are far away. They might risk getting hacked, like what ostensibly happened here, though this could easily also just be a cover story for them to disappear (and maybe retire for good) so the heat can die down. Could indeed potentially be a legitimate breach by a government or vigilante or rival though, though, due to how much this story blew up.