>Is there any other plausible actor who could be carrying on this attack for so long? Well, if we're talking about government-level conspiracy, how about the N

>Is there any other plausible actor who could be carrying on this attack for so long? Well, if we're talking about government-level conspiracy, how about the NSA? We know they have the capability to infiltrate telecom systems, we also know that following the Snowden leaks, there has been a large amount of negative feelings towards the NSA amongst programmers many of whom have been deciding to actively work against the NSA's attempts to collect and eavesdrop on everything. So what better way to get a bunch of programmers and hackers back on your side and interested in hacking for you at a state level, than feigning an attack from a foreign power and stirring up "we need to fight back" sentiment, that gets mentioned (often near the top) of every single HN thread on this matter. To me, that's a far more plausible motive than any of the motives being attributed to the Chinese government. I also see that many of the assumptions made by people about the Chinese government's capabilities and motivations are obviously being made by people with little/no understanding and experience of the Chinese - both from a cultural and technological perspective. That being said, I don't believe this attack had any real nation state involvement. It's far more likely to have been "patriotic" Chinese hackers (who often perform hacks on perceived slights against the Chinese nation) rather than any sort of explicit nation-state action. It's far more plausible and fits in with exactly the sort and style of hacks that they've been known to do in the past.