> The article does not discuss much the motivation they might have had for this hack, aside from the fact they're probably looking for gaps in general US system

> The article does not discuss much the motivation they might have had for this hack, aside from the fact they're probably looking for gaps in general US systems. NOAA is a branch of the US Department of Commerce - it's likely that is a relatively interesting target. And the NWS probably has data feeds that are based on non-publicly available information: maybe they've got some military satellite feeds out there. Who knows. But in reality I'd bet this was just a "cast many lines, see what we catch" operation. And most people probably discounted the risks of Chinese attacks against the weather service. I'd further bet that there are plenty of lesser-known government organizations out there that are being actively exploited right now.